The Telegram
by Michelle Loves Chocolate 99
Summary: Amy Cahill never realized how much the motto "Trust No One" really meant until now. Her parents are alive, Dan has run away,lastly some people she thought she could trust are part of an organization to take down the Cahills and Vespers, Amy is their target. Canceled Sequel. Takes place after C vs.V book 4 and before C vs.V book 5.
1. Telegram

_Hey everyone._

_Well, it's my first 39 Clues story, so please be nice with reviews at first, I just really want to know if the plot is good and if you would like to see it continued. Sorry the first chapter is a little short, a do apologize for that. I usually have about chapters that have 1500 words so this is about 400 words shorter, so I am sorry again!_

_This story takes place between Shatterproof and Trust No One (Which comes out TOMORROW by the way). And I do not have a cover, but I will hopefully have one soon! No promises though!_

_**Summary:**  
_

"A prank. A joke. It can't be real!" It was all Amy Cahill could think as she received the second letter written from her "mom" who died many years ago. Are they really alive? Or is it what Amy thinks? When Amy discovers a different evil is after her, she may never trust a single person again... not even her own brother.

_**Disclaimer:**_

I only say this once at the beginning of the story, because I am very forgetful, so since this is the first chapter, then I need to say this now. I don't own 39 Clues. I do fully respect the owners and authors of the series very, very much for creating such an awesome story, and never giving up on the series!

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_**The Telegram**_

Amy Cahill's fingers were rapidly moving over the keyboard in the Cahill Mansion. It was dark outside, nearly midnight as the rain slammed into the glass window of Amy's bedroom. Dan had been asleep, their two guest had been asleep, and she had only been thought to be asleep.

The only light in her room as the bright screen of her monitor shining into her emerald green eyes. Amy loved research. She enjoyed it like a little kid enjoyed ice cream. She loved to learn new things.

Her home was dead silent, except for Dan snoring across the hall and the soft, almost silent buzz the computer made, that's why Amy had jumped to hear a knock at the front door. It was eleven fifty-three, and there was a thud at the door. Amy's heart skipped a beat, as thirteen year old Dan walked into her room. His eyes were slowly adjusting to the light that her computer produced as her rubbed and squinted them. "Aren't you going to get that?" Her brother asked her.

"Dan, go back to bed. It was probably just a tree knocking against the house. The wind is pretty strong tonight," Amy told her little brother, not bothering taking her eyes off the screen. She was determined to find the answer she was looking for. But Dan didn't obey her command. He came closer to Amy, without her realizing and peeked at the monitor.

"What are you doing?" He asked, and Amy jumped slightly and and closed the opened windows, and turned off the computer and the room went pitch black.

"Going to bed," She said as she sat into her comfy mattress, and pulled the covers on top of her sixteen year old body. "Which, you should be doing the exact same thing."

"You were researching something Amy. What was it?"Amy hated to lie to her brother, that's why she forced herself to tell the truth.

"The Vespers haven't asked us to complete a ransom for them in two months Dan, that's why we came back to Attleboro. Just doing research on the hostages. Please, Dan, go to sleep!"

Dan spun around. He began to head back to his bedroom, but before her left Amy's, the sound came again. "Well, if you aren't going to answer it, then I will!" Dan started his way downstairs and Amy began to follow his footsteps. Dan unlocked the door and pulled it opened. A man stood outside, his face showed no emotion. His arm stretched out, holding an envelope in his hand.

"Telegram for Ms. and Mr. Amy and Daniel Cahill," He said. Dan pulled the thick paper from his hands with a smile.

"Cool, thanks bro!" Amy's brother said in excitement as if he never received mail before. Amy snatched the envelope from Dan's hand, and began to shut the door as she thanked the guy. She flick the living room light on, and before she knew it, Atticus and Jake Rosenbloom came tumbling down the stairs. They were staying in the Cahill mansion as well, waiting for the next command from the Vespers.

"What is that?" Jake asked.

"Telegram," Amy said, busting the paper opened. She pulled out a piece of thin paper. Dan's head tilted as his sister read the paper in her head.

"What's it say?" Atticus asked he had no glasses on so when Amy looked up to see him, she didn't recognize him for a second. The redhead folded the paper into a square, and slipped it into the pocket of her cotton candy pink and blue striped pajama pants.

"It's nothing. Go back to bed," She told everyone. Dan crossed his arms and rolled his eyes.

"Come on Amy, what's on the paper?" Dan asked his sister. "It wasn't just addressed to you, it was meant for the two of us!"

"It's absolutely nothing Dan, just some sick prank, that's all. Who sends a telegram at twelve at night?" Amy said and started her way upstairs. "Turn off the light behind you please, Dan." Dan rolled his eyes and turned off the living room lights and went to bed.

o0o

Amy locked her bedroom door and turned on her table lamp as she curled under the sheets of her bed, pulling the folded paper out. It was the second time this week she and Dan had gotten a letter from someone, but Dan didn't know about the first one. "It's false Amy," Amy whispered to herself. "They're dead. I witnessed it. They've died ten years ago."

Dan had believed his father was alive, from the fact he'd been receiving text from him. But Amy told him it was false. She told him the Vespers would do anything to get in their minds. Plus, what horrified Amy and Dan so much was the fact that their father was a Vesper. That terrorist organization would do anything to get what they want. Kill. Lie. Spy. Fake.

Amy heard the crunch of the paper as she balled it up and threw it into the trash can. Her face turned red as her eyes began to fill with tears. She wished what was on the discarded paper was real. That her parents never died. She would do anything to have Grace back alive, and go beyond anything for her mother and father. She _wanted _to believe it was real. She missed them too much. She loved them too much. Not a day went by that she didn't want to see her father enter through the front door of the house that Isabel set to flames. She wished she stilled lived in that house. But that house has been gone too long, and she and Dan had to live with horrible Aunt Beatrice.

Amy wiped away the drooling tears with her sleeve, a turned the lamp off. As she drifted off to sleep, all she could think about was the letter, the letter that was now crumbled in the garbage:

_Dear Amy & Dan,_

_I know it's hard to believe. You've been through a lot since the fire... especially after your grandmother's death. But, I need your trust, your faith, but most importantly... you. I know I have a lot of explaining to do. If you come to see me tomorrow, by the fountain in the park we used to go to, at noon, I know I will have your trust, _we _know we'll have your trust._

_Love Forever and Always,_

_Your Mother and Father_

As she slept, all she could do was wonder about that letter, and the previous note that was very similar. Whoever was trying to get to them, was probably desperate. Amy was going to go to the fountain the next day, but she wasn't going to take her little brother with her. Whoever was trying to contact the two siblings, could get to her. She wouldn't dare to let anything happen to Dan.

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**Thanks for reading, and hopefully I will update soon! Please review and tell me what you think!**

**-Michelle Loves Chocolate 99**


	2. Gathering in The Park

_**Telegram: Chapter Two**_

At eleven o'clock in the morning, Amy walked out of her bedroom, fully dressed, while the men in the house sat in comfy pjs still. It was Sunday, and Amy wasn't going to tell them that she would be leaving the house to go and talk to the person who sent her and Dan that telegram last night. Her red hair was brushed neatly as she ran her fingers through it and tied a ponytail in it, holding her hair slightly to the left in a high messy ponytail.

"Good morning," Jake Rosenbloom said as Amy's eyes widen as she saw breakfast served on the table, the boys never cooked breakfast. In fact, Amy didn't even know if they could boil water. Amy let out a smile.

"Morning," She said. She didn't bother to sit down at the table, she reached over and grabbed on piece of greasy, crunchy bacon. "I'm a little lost? Since when do you three cook? And before I eat this, did any of you poison it?"

"Don't be silly Amy," Jake said about to sip his glass of orange juice. "You slept in late, we were hungry. And may I asked where you are going?"

Amy hesitated to answer the question. She didn't want to lie, but for their protection, she had to. "Um, Evan has found some research about Vesper Three. He think he knows who it is, and he says it's not Ian. I'm meeting him at the cafe in a little bit. Got a problem?" Evan didn't know what happened in Timbuktu, but she had plans to tell him later that day. She didn't exactly give them a lie, she just avoided what she was doing before that: the park.

"Was this part of your research last night?" Dan asked.

"Identifying as many Vespers as we can is very important Dan, especially identifying the council. The more we identify, the quicker we find out who Vesper One is."

Atticus stood from the table and collected Jake and Dan's empty plates and placed them in the dishwasher. "She's got a point Dan," He said. "You should listen to your sister, she's pretty smart." Amy let a small smile place on her lips as she looked at the eleven year old boy.

"Thank you Atticus, at least I know someone in this house appreciates me. Now if you don't mind I have places to be!" Amy turned around and walked out of the house, as Atticus smiled from her kind words. She rubbed her greasy hands onto her jeans as she shut the door behind her.

"She's lying," Dan said as the front door slammed. Atticus's smiled fell off. "Not about what she said to you Atticus. I mean, she's lying about where she's going." Jake rose from his chair, and pushed it back into the dining room table.

"Well, I guess I go find out the truth," He said. and dashed upstairs to change clothes.

o0o

The sun beamed down onto the grass. Children ran, chasing each other, playing, running as much energy off as they could as their parents and guardians relax on the side benches.

Amy lifted up her hood on her jacket and slid on a pair of big sun glasses. She took a seat on the swings, she had full vision of the fountain. Something she learned during the search of the 39 Clues, is that, not to trust everyone, be careful in who you believe in. Another thing she was taught was that it was fun to spy on someone, but what she didn't know was that she had a tail: Jake Rosenbloom.

The November wind felt like springs, not one bit fall and that was why the park was crowded. Kids were enjoying the nice weather while they had it. The temperature was suppose to go to normal later that week anyway. Amy didn't mind the crowds. Crowds were good, it lessened her chances of getting kidnapped, beaten up, or worse. But the disadvantage was that the more people there was, meant it was harder to spot out the Subject, especially when you don't exactly know who the Subject or Subjects are.

"Looks like a cafe to me," Jake said, taking the swing next to Amy, her face grew red with anger, though you couldn't see her eyes, they gave Jake the death glare.

"I knew one of you fools would go there and spy on me," Amy lied, taking her eyes of Jake and putting them back on the pool of water that was not turned on. " Though, I predicted it was going to be Atticus or Dan, especially Dan... Not you Jake."

"You're not here to see Evan, aren't you Amy?" Jake said, he paused waiting for an answer, but Amy didn't shoot back or give him a glare. "Silent treatment? Very well... but if you don't mind me asking, who are you meeting Amy? Aunt? Uncle? Cousin? Anybody but Evan Tolliver. Does this have to do with anything that happened last night and that letter?" Amy turned to look at him, her eyes stared into his.

"Must you ask so many questions, be so nosy?" Amy said to him, her voice was almost mad. "Whatever you do, don't tell my brother. Don't even say this to Atticus because he will tell Dan if he promises to be quiet or not. No, I am not meeting Evan. Yes this has to do with the telegram, and I have no idea who I am meeting, you happy?" After her sentence, she returned to staring at the fountain.

"Why can't Dan know?" Jake asked, though he knew Amy was tired of his questions. "Amy, what was on that paper?"

"It's... just someone trying to contact us. Someone we don't know if they are dangerous, or not. And I'm not exactly meeting them. They want me to meet them, but I'm just... spying."

"Obviously, you are not doing a good job," Jake pointed to the figure walking towards the swings that sat on. A smile formed from the man's lips, and Amy's face froze as the man came to a halt in front of them.

"Hello angel," The man said, looking into Amy's eyes through the dark circular lens on top of them. His smile faded as he watched Amy quickly get up and drag Jake off the swing.

"Jake," She said pulling his arm as she began to run from the swings. Her hood fell off of her head and tiny pieces of hair stood from static. "Run! We need to run."

"Amy! Wait!" The man's voice hollered in the distance. Amy ignored it. She could feel the tears running from her eyes.

"Who was that man, Amy?" Jake asked coming to a stop, his hand gripped Amy's wrist, stopping her from running. The man began to walk quickly toward them, he wasn't very far away. Jake didn't let them get very far away.

"A Vesper... a liar, a traitor, someone who you think you can always trust, but you discover you can't." The man was almost there, just a few steps away. Amy looked into Jake's eyes. "Go! I'll... I'll take care of this... if I'm not back at the mansion, by one, call Evan and tell him I won't be at the cafe... then come looking for me. Don't tell Dan about this! Run!" Jake walked off, he didn't run. he walked. His eyes looked at Amy, as she looked at the man who was now right in front of her. He then began to walk back to the mansion, which was just a block away.

o0o

"What are you doing here?" Amy asked her father. She pulled off her sunglasses. She wasn't crying anymore. It didn't look like she was crying. "You're suppose to be under six feet of dirt. I watched you get lowered into it. But I should've known it was a lie, ever since I found out the truth."

"Your mother and I have asked for your brother to come too Amy," Arthur Trent asked his daughter, ignoring her question. "Where is he?"

"Safe... from you. What do you want with us? You already walked out on us. Why come back?"

"Grace is gone, Fiske is gone. Everyone that could tell you can't, either being buried, or held as captives. Your protectors are gone... that is if you count your Aunt Beatrice your guardian."

"Why do I need to be protected?" Amy asked. "Who from? You, and the other Vespers? What about mom? She was in the letters you've sent to me and Dan, where is she? Is she a walking dead person to?"

"Hope is alive as well Amy. She went into the house with me while we both escaped. We didn't want to leave the two of you, but for your safety, we had too. You can trust me Amy. I left the Vespers after I found out the truth about them. I'm not a Vesper Spy getting information from the Madrigals if that is what you're thinking sweetheart. The Vespers aren't your only enemy Amy. Someone else is hunting you down. Something else is hunting you down. Someone is trying to kill you Amy."

"And why should I believe anything you say to me?"

"Because I'm your-"

"My dad?" Amy finished his sentence. "My dad is dead, but I guess my father isn't. Funny, I trusted my Dad, but not my father. My dad raised me, while my father, to the looks of it, abandon me and my brother." Amy took a step closer to him, only an inch or two was the size of the gap that their bodies have made. "My father _is_ a Vesper. How do I know? Vespers lie. Now get this straight, leave me alone. Got that? If I find out that you have talked to Dan again, you don't want to know what happens to you. If you ever breathe on my brother, then you may want to start running. Stay away from me, and my brother. We have too much to deal with at the moment... A dead father contacting, alive, is something that I don't want to deal with. One thing Grace taught me, 'trust no one.'" Amy turned around and left. Not letting her father respond. She didn't want to hear it.

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**Thank you TheTranquilTornado for your review! I appreciate it very much! Is anyone else liking this story? I'm still debating if it should be continued or not. Please do vote for the poll on my profile, it's about this story.**

**Thanks for reading!**

**-MLC 99**


	3. Kidnapped

_**Telegram: Chapter Three**_

Amy began to slow down. She was far, far away from the park, over by a grocery store. She inhaled and exhaled quickly, trying to catch her breath. Lucky for her, she didn't have asthma like her brother, Dan. She took a seat on a bench that was placed on the ground outside the store. And closed her eyes for a second.

It was a peaceful moment to relax after all that running. Birds chirped as they flew by, and the soft chit-chats of people who walked by entering the store, were so calming. It was probably the most relaxing moment Amy Cahill has had since the death of her grandmother, Grace.

Before Amy could open her eyes, she heard loud feet, stomping onto the concrete. Someone was running. She opened her eyes as soon as the feet stopped, and a white cloth was firmly placed over her mouth. It's semi sweet smell ran into her nostrils, and Amy's green eyes slowly closed as a man picked her up, and tucked the chloroform rag into his back pocket. He gently carried her away, not causing a public scene at all. Amy Cahill was no longer outside the store. She was gone.

o0o

Jake Rosenbloom opened the door to the Cahill Mansion. It was already one and Amy wasn't there. He already texted Evan that she wasn't going to make it. He did what he was asked, minus the part that he was suppose to be looking for her. He wanted to give her time to get back.

"Was she with Evan?" Dan Cahill asked as his best friend's half older brother shut the front door. Jake lied and nodded his head.

"Yeah, she was at the cafe with Evan. She wasn't lying," Jake said, Atticus shrugged.

"Maybe she knew you were tailing her," He suggested. "So she-"

"Trust me," Jake cut his brother off. "She didn't know." Jake took a seat on the couch, and Dan crossed his arms.

"You're lying," He said. "I can see it in your face. Tell the truth Jake. Where did Amy go?"

Jake looked at the screen as his phone vibrated from the reply from Evan. He picked it up and unlocked it. Ignoring Amy's brother's question. He opened the message, and before he could read it, Dan snatch the device out of his hands and quickly read the message in his head.

_Evan: What happened? What's wrong? Is she okay?_

Dan scrolled down to see the previous message that Jake had sent to Evan.

_Jake: Sorry Evan. Something uh... came up. Amy can't come to the cafe tonight. She says she'll call you later._

"Why isn't Amy meeting Evan?" Dan asked Jake. Jake leaned over and grabbed his cell phone and put it in his pocket. "Where is she?"

"It's nothing Dan," He said. "She's... She is taking care of a small problem, that's all. Nothing to worry about."

"Well, what's the problem about?" Atticus asked, making Jake very annoyed with the interrogation.

"Honestly, I have no idea."He said, which was the truth pretty much. Dan sat next to him on the couch, and Atticus took his other side. "I followed her to the park. She said that the letter the two of you received yesterday asked for you two to meet someone by the fountain? Something like that.

"She wasn't meeting him, she said she was only spying, but someone spotted us. She she noticed the man, she told me to go run away. She said something about the man being a Vesper, and not to tell the two of you about this, especially not to you Dan. She seemed to be very scared of him."

"What did the man look like," Atticus asked. Jake shook his head.

"I don't know, really. I didn't get a good look at him. Sort of tall, looked to be maybe later forties, early fifties. Uh... five-o'clock shadow... In a way he sort of reminded me of you Dan."

Dan got off the couch and walked over to the bookshelf and pulled off a picture frame, and walked back to the couch. He handed Jake a picture of a man and a woman, but part of the woman's face was covered as it was buried in the man's shoulder. "Is that the man?" Dan asked, and Jake nodded. "Jake, that's my Dad."

Before Jake, and Atticus could respond to what Dan had said, they were all interrupted by the bleep of Dan's cell phone. Dan grabbed it off of the table. All three boys were hoping for a text from Amy, hoping she said she was on her way home, or that she was late because she stopped at the store to get food, but it wasn't from Amy.

Disappointed a lot, Dan opened up the unknown text message. He didn't allow Jake, nor Atticus to look and read over his shoulder. Dan had turned to an angle that the two couldn't read it, as he read to himself silently:

_The Circle has her. She didn't want to listen to me. I tried to warn her, but I failed. I'm sorry._

_-AJT_

o0o

Amy's green eyes opened up and rapidly blinked. She didn't know where she was, or how she got there. Her head throbbed with pain and the room spun in circles around her. She was dizzy.

Last thing Amy remembered as listening to the chirping birds outside the store on the bench, now she was in a dark room, with hard concrete floor and metal bars surrounding her like a cage. She felt like she was in a jail cell.

"Hello!" Amy yelled, or at least tried to. It only sounded like a soft whisper. A loud thud echoed through the chamber. Amy covered her ears. With her horrible headache, the thud sounded louder to her. "Who-Who's there?"

No answer. No more sounds of movement. All Amy heard now was her deep breathing and her heart beat. Amy was scared. She had no idea where she was, what had happened. She didn't remember arriving there.

She looked down at her wrist. Though it was dark, she could see near objects, or at least make out it's shape. Her watch was gone, the watch with Gideon Cahill's ring, was no longer placed in her wrist. It was gone. The ring Cahills have been protecting for 500 years has been stolen.

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**First, off, I know this chapter is short, I am deeply sorry about that. Sometimes you are going to get short chapter, other times, you'll get perfect length chapters, and other times, long chapters. I hope you liked this chapter, minus the length part. Now Second, this story is officially going to continue this story. Third, if any of you readers, have any ideas for this story, I would gladly like to here them. **

**Now, I would love to thank Agent Get Amy and Ian Together, TheTranquilTornado, JesseCPK, and Jamyfrvr for your reviews! I appreciate you four a lot for reading! And to answer Jamyfrvr's question. This will me a Jamy story, but that would be the subplot. It won't be all about those two. I don't really like Amy and Evan as a couple, so probably most of my 39 Clues stories will be Amians and Jamys because I like those two pairings the most.**

**Once again, sorry this chapter isn't my best work!**

**-MLC99**


	4. Trouble

_**Telegram: Chapter Four**_

Trouble.

What is trouble exactly? It's being as annoying as possible, and bothering someone or something, to being trapped in a pickle. Trouble is to emotional pain, and physical pain, or possibly is something you don't want to be, or want to be in whether the pain is emotional or physical. But that isn't all what trouble means.

A definition that only few, very few people know about. There are Cahills and Vespers, but there is another group that no one really knows about, only few, very few Cahills and Vespers know, and when they hear their name, they are frightened, and totally terrified. These people, are part of the definition of trouble. Who are these people? The Black Circle.

Lacey Lake dusted off her black and light gray business suit. She calmly brush a piece of light brunette hair behind her ear, and then placed her fingers onto the keyboard of her computer. Lacey was a reporter, well, that was her cover...

Lacey had been a member of the Black Circle since she was a baby, an infant, a newborn, she was born into this society. Her father had been one, and had died on one of his missions. Now it was time for this twenty-three year old to finish his mission. Instead of opening Google to research some things for her next story, she opened up files, locked files.

Typing in the password, Lacey smiled as the pictures of captured Amy Cahill popped onto her screen. She was captured. She had had her. As the leader of the Circle, Lacey Lake was very proud of her team. She reached for the phone on her desk and punch in numbers.

"I received your package Mr. Tolliver. Thank you for bringing her in. Your work is very well appreciated. Your check will be in the mail tomorrow. I hope that will pay for your not, I'm sure you wouldn't mind coming back for more. Thank you Sir very much. Bye-bye now." She slapped the corded phone onto her desk and circled the cursor over the red X and closed the pictures.

Lacey Lake was trouble.

What does the Black Circle want anyway? Why did they form, and who founded it? Obviously it wasn't named after a guy named Black Circle. This secret society of course has it's juicy secrets that may never be explained... well, never be explained to Cahills and Vespers.

It started fifty years ago. The Cahills were all about the Clues, as if their life depended on it, and in a way, it sort of did. The Vespers were all about getting the Clues before the Cahills, for the sake of Damian Vesper who they worshiped like a god almost. So fifty years ago, the Black Circle formed, but again, why?

Cahills hated the Vespers. Vespers hated the Cahills. Hatred was strong, they two groups were always backstabbers, but the Vespers were always a bigger threat to the Cahills then they were to the Vespers.

Branches Tomas, Lucian, Janus, and Ekaterina, each knew about the Madrigals threats, but never knew who the Madrigals really were. They thought they were killers! They didn't know that Madrigals were trying to end the war between the four branches, and that there was actually five branches, the Madrigals was the fifth branch. The Madrigals job wasn't just that, fifty years ago, they added another job to their list, stop the Black Circle.

Grace Cahill's dad left when she was young. He abandon the family when his wife died giving birth to his youngest son. He was a Madrigal, but he betrayed the branch. James Cahill wanted...

o0o

"Who the heck is the Circle!" Dan said though his arms in motion, reading the text from the mysterious AJT, who is now, proof that his father is alive. "Sorry, but he couldn't have told us just a tiny bit more information of what happened to my sister?"

"Maybe he doesn't want you to get into the case," Atticus said, trying everything to calm his friend down. It wasn't working out too well. "The Vespers are scary, and very dangerous, what if the Circle or whatever, is more dangerous, if of course, there is a such thing."

"My sister is gone. My only family, well intermediate family is gone. I have none left. Who is he to think I'm not going to go up against whoever I'm going up against is?"

"Dan," Jake said, putting his hand on Dan's shoulder. "We'll get Amy back. And you still do have AJT if you count him as family. Amy will be back. Amy will be back safe."

Jake wasn't sure if his words were right. Anything to calm someone down should be said. Anything to make a crazy person more crazier, shouldn't. Dan needed to hear that, and Atticus stared at Jake with his arms crossed. He wished Jake knew what he was doing, lying to Dan like that.

"So, Dan, why don't you text AJT back and find out?" Atticus suggested. "That might be smart. At least you know you are contacting him, and not... you know, a Vesper."

"Yeah..." Dan's voice trailed off as he tapped into his phone.

"He left them Dan," Jake began. "So why was Amy so afraid of him, and why did she believe he was still a Vesper?"

"Probably because he lied. He faked his death and never bothered to come back to them and say hello. He wasn't acting very fatherly for her," Dan said as his phone buzzed in reply. "That's probably why."

_Bad, very bad. Listen, don't go near them, avoid them as much as possible._

_-AJT_

"What's it say this time?" Atticus asked his friend Dan about his message he received. Dan shoved the phone into his pocket.

"Nothing, it was just Jonah wondering if Vesper One has contacted us or not. I'll tell him about Amy later, after we know the truth. Anyway, we need to find Amy, asap. Atticus, could you take a look at her computer? Emails, files, history, all things like that. Amy had to know about whoever these people were, or are, or something about them."

Atticus bounced from the couch and hurried up into Amy's room, as Dan and Jake followed behind.

o0o

Amy pulled on the locked door of the cage that felt like a prison cell. She tried everything she could to get it to reopen. It wouldn't budge more than an inch back, and an inch forward. The gate was locked, but wasn't locked tight.

Amy pulled out a bobby pin the she has had in her ponytail since she left to go to the park earlier that day. She stuck the piece of metal into the keyhole of the lock. One thing that she appreciated was Dan teaching her how to pick a lock, something he was taught by Lightfinger Lary.

As the lock clicked, Amy swung the door open slowly, trying not to make noise as she exited the cage, and made an escape through a door that lead outside, in the middle of a forest.

"AMY!" A scream echoed through the woods. Amy looked everywhere, she didn't know where the sound came from, but she heard footsteps, pounding against the dirt and crunching leaves. Running, it was running. The last time Amy hear running was earlier that day, when she was kidnapped.

"Amy, I've been looking all over for you!" A voice said as the footsteps' sound came to a stop, she turned around to see Evan Tolliver.

"Evan, how'd you know I was here? We were suppose to meet at the cafe, didn't Jake tell you I wasn't going to be there?" Evan nodded.

"Yeah, but I tracked you down. He wouldn't tell me why, so I thought he said that just to... uh make me mad or something, make it seem like I stood you up. Anyway, what are doing here?"

"I was kidnapped."

Evan made a confused face and pulled out his cell phone from his pocket, he began to type in a message. " Kidnapped? Come on, let me take you home. We'll talk later when we get there." He grabbed Amy's hand, but she tugged away and ran.

Tears brusted from Amy's eyes as she dodged trees and vines. It echoed in her brain, what she had secretly read Evan's text over his shoulder. It echoed and echoed.

_Victim has escaped. Don't worry, I've got her. I'll take her somewhere else. She doesn't suspect a thing about me._

Evan couldn't be trust.

* * *

**The length is pretty descent. Anyway, I hope to have about maybe five more chapters of this, somewhere around there. So hopefully it will be about ten chapters. Almost all my stories that aren't one-shots are like 30 chapters long... and I don't feel like doing another one for a little bit, I feel like taking a break from long stories. Since I never wrote a 39 story yet, just so you know, I love to add cliffhangers to chapters, if you haven't figured that out ready. So, I'm sorry about the cliffhanger, it's what I like! And plus for you, this cliffhanger isn't as bad as ones for this other story I have wrote. So your kind of lucky.**

**Thank you SO much reviewers! I appreciate it! Thanks again, Agent Get Amy And Ian Together, Jamyfrvr, and The TranquilTornado! You three rock! Keep it up!**

**Question:**_ Are there any Amy&Evan fans reading this?_

__**-MLC99**


	5. Lost Trust

_**Telegram: Chapter Five**_

"Mr. Tolliver," Lacey Lake said angrily over the phone. If she wasn't in public, especially in an office in front of a lot of reporters, she would have yelled. "You let her get away? How? You said she escaped and that she wouldn't suspect a thing! You've lied!"

"Sorry Ms. Lake," The voice in the speaker said. "I had her, then I took away for like two seconds and she's gone. I don't know how she escaped the warehouse, but she ran away from me. Can't we just let her go now? We have Gideon's ring."

"I am your boss, I am older than you, and wiser. Do not question my work once again Mr. Tolliver!" Lacey hung the phone forcefully. With a deep breath to calm herself down, she began to type her next article. She needed something to get this whole Black Circle thing off her mind, and she needed to keep her job as well.

"Lake, you almost with your work?" Her editor walked up to her desk. She only had to paragraphs written.

"Almost done, just five more minutes and I'll hand you a copy." When the editor left, Lacey typed slowly. She only had a five minute break of the Circle, and she was going to use every minute of it wisely. She rarely ever got a vacatio with that job!

o0o

Atticus let his fingers move all around Amy's keyboard as he tried everything possible to unlock her computer. Once he punched in his last try he let his pinkie finger hit the enter button. Smiles formed on the three boys's lips as a welcome sign appeared on the screen unlocking her computer.

"Great job Atticus," Dan cheered. "Now can you like get into files and such? I don't think she would have them locked."

Atticus moved the cursor around the desktop searching for icons. While he did that Dan's eyes rested on the trash bin next to the desk. Filled with curiosity, he reached into the bin a pulled out the balled up paper on the top, he placed it against his leg unwrinkling it.

"What's that?" Jake asked as Dan began to read it.

"I think it's the telegram we received last night," Dan said. "Amy wouldn't let me read it, and I guess it's because she didn't want me knowing what's on it."

"What are you doing!?" A scream yelled behind them, they all turned around to see Amy, covered with dirt. "I'm gone for like four hours and you're going through my belongings? Unbelievable!"

"Amy we thought you were kidnapped!" Atticus said running to Amy. "Thank God you're OK!"

"I'm fine. What makes you think I was kidnapped? I, uh was just went for a walk in the woods that's all. Now get out!" Amy yelled at the boys and they exited. As Dan walked out, Amy snatched the paper out of his hands.

When the last boy exited, Amy locked her door. Amy didn't know what to think. People she thought she could trust were gone. One was part of her kidnap, and the others were going through her room. Everyone she needed to trust in right now couldn't be trusted. God was her only trust, she couldn't even trust herself.

Amy moved quickly to her windows, she made sure they were locked. No one was going to take her again and Evan was going to hand over her watch. She was sure of it.

o0o

Sinead Starling looked around quickly. It was dark under the night sky, she had to make sure there was no followers as she walked. When she arrived at an empty building, she bursted through the doors. Five other people what in chairs inside.

"Sorry I'm late! I-"

"You don't need to give me excuses Ms. Starling. Please take your seat," The words from the person at the top of the table said.

"I am sorry to call this meeting on such a short notice, but he Black Circle is active," It said. "Amy Cahill was kidnapped today, we haven't heard anything else yet. But we think they have the ring."

"What will we do now?" Vesper Two, Isabel, asked Vesper One.

"Something tragic. Something we cannot even think about doing," Sinead said. "Am I right?"

"Smart girl," Vesper One said to Sinead. "I will be asked them next thing in the morning, bright and early. But be prepared for our only chance of taking these beast down once and for all and the perfect opportunity to get that ring."

"So we can go now?" Cheyanne asked. Vesper One nodded. "You may leave, but I will be needing to talk to you after I make the call. Be careful all of you, we don't want the Circle to get us like they got the Cahills."

* * *

**Sorry about the length! Truly sorry! What do you guys think so far? Is it good?**

**Thanks to all you reviewed: Jamyfrvr, Agent Get Amy and Ian Together, the guest reviewer, TheTranquilTornado, , and orange penguin. I appreciate your feed back very much! Sorry it's been a couple days since update! Forgive me? ****And the guest reviewer, I don't think Evan is evil in the books at all, just have him as the bad guy in here because it fits the plot better. **

**Next update should be on Christmas Eve or Day. It depends. Oh an before I forget, this has nothing to do with BK5 The Black Circle. I completely forgot that was it's name when I came up with the villains group name. Sorry!**

**-MLC99**


	6. I Promise

_**Telegram: Chapter Six**_

The door of a cheap motel door shut and the lock turned. Arthur Trent turn the light in the room on, as Hope Cahill walked out of the bathroom, wearing only a towel and her hair dripping wet.

"You've been gone for a while, how'd it go?" Hope asked her husband, he shook his head.

"Sorry, sweetheart," He said to her. "I tried, but she wouldn't listen. She ran, but running didn't help. They have her."

Tears welled up in Hope's eyes. Could this really be happening? Her daughter was now held captive by enemies worse than the Vespers. Was it over? Or could she be saved? Hope didn't know, Arthur didn't know.

"That means they have got the ring, and all this hiding and faking our own deaths wasn't worth it."

"Hope, just because it seems that our plan is crumbling down, doesn't mean that it is over. We'll get her back, and Gideon's Ring. We aren't going to let the Black Circle take control over us Cahills, they can have the Vespers, but not us."

"But Arthur-"

"Don't protest Darling, don't doubt. It will be fixed and the Circle will go down, once and for all. We will be united with Amy and Dan again, we'll be our happy family that we were ten years ago. I promise, everything will be alright," Arthur leaned in a kissed Hope on the lips, and gently pulled away from her. "I promise."

Arthur leaned in and kissed Hope again. She cupped her hands around his face, and he wrapped his arms around her waist. Hope passionately kissed his back, but was rudely interrupted by the sound of Arthur's phone. He pulled it out of his pocket. "It's from Dan."

_Amy is back, she is very mad and refuses to talk to us. She's covered with dirt and leaves, scratches on arms, holes in clothing, she's a mess. She said she just went for a walk in the woods, but looks more like a chase in the woods to me. -Dan_

"The Circle wouldn't just let Amy go like that," Hope said as she read the text. "They got what they wanted, or she escaped. Do they have the ring?"

"Most likely. The Circle is filled with wise people. They probably took it when they had her unconscious. We got to get the ring back."

"Don't worry," Hope said. "We are Cahills, we'll manage."

o0o

_Keep her close, don't let her out of sight. Danger is everywhere, be careful who you trust. -AJT_

Dan read the text from his father, and shoved his phone into his pocket early the next morning. The sun was just peeking over the hills. Dan wasn't much of an early riser, but something drawed him up at this time. He was already dressed, sneakers, jeans, T-shirt, everything, even his hair was combed!

"What's up with you?" Atticus asked Dan as he began to descend down the stairs into the room Dan was sitting in.

Dan shrugged. "No clue, something just pulled me out of bed. Who ever the Circle is, is dangerous, we need to watch Amy closely."

"Why is she lying to us? Why won't she admit she was kidnapped."

"Amy is always taking the role of the 'Big Sister', she's always over protective, and not just to me, but to people she knows. She couldn't live with herself if anyone she cared about got hurt on her watch."

Dan pulled out the device from his pocket as is vibrated against his leg. Someone was calling him. Atticus took the seat next to him on the couch.

"Who is it?" Atticus asked. Dan's puzzled face gave him the answer. Dan didn't know, but it didn't stop him from answering.

"Hello?" Dan said over the speaker. A manipulated voice spoke over the speaker.

"Daniel Cahill, pleasure to actually speak to you voice to voice."

"May I ask who is calling?" Dan asked the fake deep voice.

"Your great friend Vesper One, obviously you have noticed I haven't contacted you in a while. Obvious reasons why. I am calling on behalf of the other Vespers. We Vespers and you Cahills are all in high danger now the the Black Circle is active. I'm guessing the took Gideon's ring didn't they?"

"What?"

"Oh, is Amy not cooperating with you? Shame. Now now, with them active that means they will be coming after both of us groups, and even possibly your friend that is sitting next to you. Which I am-"

"How do you know that Atticus is right next to me?"

"Oh dear friend, I'm a Vesper, I know everything. Back to subject, I need your help, and you need mine. I am offering to join your side, at least until this whole thing is over. I will return the hostages to you and all. It isn't just you Cahills they want, it's us Vespers as well. Please do consider my offer. Us two forces joining together will be the biggest thing to happen in centuries. It's not everyday enemies pair you know. Chow!"

"Man I hate him!" Dan's voice grew angry.

"Who is it that you hate?" Atticus asked confused over the whole phone conversation, as dan through his phone to the carpet floor. "Who was that on the phone."

"Vesper One, he wants us to come together to take down these Circle people."

"And what do you think?" Atticus asked.

Dan shrugged. "I have no clue if that's a good idea or not. This whole Circle thing could just be a trap, and the Vespers are just trying to get to us. If it is, they won already. Amy's watch is gone according to Vesper One. If this isn't a prank, then we might as well join the Vespers on this."

"Join the Vespers!" A shout interrupted the conversation as Jake walked into the room. "Are you crazy? Have you lost your mind? What on Earth has gotten into the two of you?"

"Jake, calm down. Of course we aren't going to join the organization! We mean team up. The Circle doesn't just want the Cahills, they want the Vespers as well. Vesper One wants to group up with us to take them down, though we still don't know who _them_ is."

"Is that true?" Jake asked after Atticus spoke. The two boys on the couch nodded. "Well we're not joining them... It's the Vespers you two are talking about. It's not like joining an army of unicorns and fairies. They can't be trusted."

Dan sighed. "The Circle people have the watch..."

"What watch?" Jake asked.

"Amy's watch. They must've taken it when the kidnapped her. If we don't get that back..."

"We'll get it back," Atticus said. "But Amy needs to actually speak to us for us to be able to get it. What's up with her anyway?"

"No clue," Jake said with a shrug. "She's mad at us, but I have no idea why."

Suddenly, thuds of Amy running down the stairs were heard and they stopped the conversation. The whole house was quiet. Not a peep, except the cat slowly making it's approach into the room. Amy turned to them, and gave them a glare.

"Awfully early for you three, don't you think?" Amy question.

"SHE SPOKE! AMAZING!" Dan joked with a snicker, Atticus and Jake gave them a death glare. Dan stopped laughing and cleared his throat. "I mean, good morning Amy." Amy rolled her eyes with annoyance and opened the front door.

"Where are you going?" Atticus asked.

"Out," Amy said and barged out the door shutting it behind her.

Dan let out a sigh. "There she goes again. Jake, you should go follow her... Atticus and I will stay here. We'll contact the other Cahills and inform them on what is going on. Maybe they will have info on these Circle people. Don't let the Circle get her again."

Jake stood up. "Whatever you say... since when have I began taking orders from a twelve year old anyway?"

"Thirteen!" Dan hissed, Jake smiled and walked to the door.

"I knew that, just kidding."

* * *

**Merry Christmas! I hope you enjoyed your present, which if you haven't realized is this update. I hope you like it, I've work hard this morning with it. It's decently lengthed. Anyway, where is Amy going? Have any thoughts?**

**Thanks to all of my reviewers! I couldn't have kept writing this without you! Those are: Lee, Jamyfrvr, Agent Get Amy and Ian Together, and lastly, TheTranquilTornado. I appreciate all of you dedicating your time to read this story! Thanks so much!**

**Oh and Jamyfrvr, it really depends on what school you go to. Some of them have parties, others don't. Good luck next year!**

**Merry Christmas everyone and happy New Year! (I know it's Christmas Eve, but I don't know how much time I'll have tomorrow, so yeah...)**

**-Michelle Loves Chocolate 99**


	7. Best Day Ever For Lacey Lake at Least

_**Telegram: Chapter Seven**_

Amy's cheeks turned red as the cold fall wind blew against her face as she walked outside. It finally began to feel like November after having nice weather, meaning there was very sunny days that you didn't need a sweater to exit your home, but now, you needed it.

Amy zipped up her jacket hand relaxed her hands in the pockets. Her fingertips rubbed against her cell phone and a folded paper. _Trust no one, _Amy thought. _I've always been told to trust no one. And I shouldn't. Not ever. _

Amy thought about the paper in her pocket. Last night, after she hurried Dan, Atticus and Jake out of her bedroom, she received an email. Sort of like the telegram she got the other night, it asked her to meet someone somewhere at ten in the morning, but it wasn't signed by her mom and dad, someone else had signed it. Someone Amy never dared to trust again, in fact, she will never trust anyone again after her kidnap.

"I'd knew you'd show up," A familiar voice rang in Amy's ears as she entered an empty, abandon alley.

"Only for one reason. You and whoever else that is working for you caught me off guard last time, you'll never take me again," Amy said with clenched teeth. " I want the watch back Evan!"

"You came because of that stupid ancient ring? Gideon Cahill's ring is now in the hands of the Black Circle. You Cahills will never get it back over our dead bodies!" Evan said to Amy. She ignored his little comment, and tied her hair back.

"I trusted you Evan. I thought you were good. Now, I've learned my lesson. I appreciate that from you... so thank you for that I guess... Why did you invite me here? What is it that you and your gang possibly want? You mentioned something about questions?" Evan wrinkled his nose in annoyance, as Amy unzipped her jacket. She was ready to defend herself from anything in the stance she placed herself in. She dropped her jacket to the ground containing her cell phone and the paper inside her pocket. "Well, are ya gonna answer my question?"

"If you really do want to know, then very well. I was just about to tell you anyway. The second address in that email I had sent you is the address of the Daily Gazette Newspaper. Some reporter has been bugging me about you. What was her name? Linda Lace? I don't recall. Something like that. Point is, she's trying to track you down. She wants to interview you I guess. I'm just trying to get the lady to stop pestering me about you."

"Question me about what?"

"I have know idea, obviously for a story since she's a reporter. Your choice if you want to visit her or not. If not, I'll tell her the news that you are not interested."

Amy's head turned, and she glued her eyes on Evan, as if she was trying to read his mind. "Evan, why would she contact you instead of me? Don't you find that a little odd?"

"No, she says she can't find you, calls she makes to you are disconnected and all that stuff. I gave her your number and everything."

"And why not tell me this over a text, and email or a phone call? Why in person?"

"Listen Amy, I'll just tell the girl that you are not interested. No big deal. Unlike you Cahills, the Circle's member don't like to start drama."

Evan began to walk away. His shoulder bumped into Amy as he past her, exiting the alley. Before he walked out he stopped to a halt as Amy spoke. "Don't bother telling her that. I'll visit her myself," Amy said as she walked past Evan exiting the alley. "Have a nice life Evan... It was a pleasure spending that short time period with you. Good-bye!" Amy left one direction as Evan left another, departing into their separate ways. One heading to a newspaper company, the other, heading off to do bad things.

Amy didn't realize it. She promised herself never to trust another soul, but she trusted Evan about the journalist. What she didn't realize was that she was walking straight into the Black Circle's trap by visiting the group's leader. She was visiting the Black Circle's Vesper One, but in this case, it was more like Black Circle One... their group really should work on a name to call her.

o0o

Amy pushed open the doors to the Daily Gazette. Immediately she walked toward the lady at the desk in the front. She typed into the computer in front of her as she held the desk phone between her ear and shoulder. Her hazel eyes quickly glanced at Amy as she approach the front desk.

"I'm sorry can you hold on a minute?" She said into the phone and the placed it on it's holder and looked up at Amy. "Busy day today... Are you here for the job opening? You look so young to be a journalist sweetheart."

"Oh no, I'm not here for that. I'm actually looking for someone," Amy told the lady. She searched her desked and pulled out her planner and quickly browsed through it.

"Well, I don't see any appointments on here dear child. Um may I ask you you are searching for?" Amy shrugged her shoulders.

"Not exactly. I don't think I have the name right, uh does a Linda Lace sound familiar to you?"

The lady shook her head indicating 'no.' "Sorry cupcake, I don't know any Linda Lace's. Maybe you mean Lacey Lake our second floor reporter?" Amy nodded her head, she wasn't quite sure. The name did sound like the one Evan gave her. "Okay honey, visitors are asked to sign in before they go and uh... visit so please do sign your name right here," She handed Amy a pen and pointed to a book on her desk. "Lacey is on the second floor, if you take the elevator, it will be the first desk you see. Brunette gal, very kind sweetheart."

Amy gave the helpful lady at the desk a kind smile and entered the elevator shaft next to the lady's desk. Two men have been working on fixing that thing all day and just now got done. No one was inside when Amy had pushed the buttons... No one was inside just as the Black Circle planned. As the door closed shut, the elevator lights went out, Amy could not see a thing. Suddenly, it happened.

Amy heard a snap. She searched for an emergency button but couldn't see due to the darkness. The elevator was falling. Amy was falling.

o0o

Jake couldn't follow Amy. She was too far ahead of him and he had sadly lost her. She was out of sight. He sat down on a bench and moaned and groaned._ If the Circle gets ahold of her again... _Jake shook the thought out of his head. He was commanded to catch Amy, to stop her, and that was what he was going to do.

Amy's cell phone, that she refuses to pick up was connected to the Gideon Satellite, so was his, and Dan's, and Atticus's, Jonah's... etc. He was saved because of that. Jake had a GPS of Amy's cell phone. He had her pinpointed on the map on his smartphone. He then had began to make his way towards Amy's location.

Arriving to the place Jake's smartphone had led him to, he came to a halt, and disappointment filled his body. Amy wasn't there. He looked around the area. _She at least had to be here... if she wasn't why would the GPS bring me here?_

Jake found his answer as he spotted the jacket Amy had put on before she left that morning, lying on the ground. He ran towards it. As he pick up the jacket, the items of her pocket fell out, her cell phone, a folded piece of printer paper, and a breath mint. He picked up the phone and paper and stuffed it in his pocket. As he did that he pulled out his own phone.

_Came to a dead end. Have no idea where she is. Any clue why she would come to an abandon alley?_

Within seconds he got a reply from Amy's brother Dan.

Dan:_Have no clue why she would be there. BTW the other Cahills agree with this Vesper thing. They want us to accept their request. I'm going to do it, if Amy likes it or not..._

With a sigh he put his phone back into his pocket and pulled out the paper he found from Amy's jacket. His eyes widen as he read the unfolded paper. It came very clear to him why she came here. Now, she was either kidnapped or attended the second address on the sheet.

"Amy, what the hell are you doing?" He whispered under his breath. Stuffing the paper back into his pocket, he hurried out of the alley and GPSed the second address on the paper. But before Jake Rosenbloom could exit, something caught his eye. A wallet!

It wasn't his of course, nor Amy's. He never seen it before. He pick it up off the ground. Hundred dollar bills and bills lower than that were stuffed into the little pocket space. His head tilted as he noticed whose driver's license that was in it. _Tolliver? What's he doing here?_

Jake never really has thought of Evan to be the rich type, he expected him to be average like other normal people. The letter in his pocket didn't really mention any names at all, excepted Amy's. It was just an email printed off the computer, from someone else to Amy. Could it possibly be Evan who sent it? Jake didn't know. He had to know whose email address was in that paper. But before that, he had to find Amy.

o0o

Lacey Lake looked down out the window from her floor. Fire trucks. Police cars. Ambulances. They weren't going to find anything. Only one person was in that fallen elevator, but when they get to it, the person was going to be gone. In fact, the body was being taken out of the Daily Gazette right now! She had won, and that's why a smile had filled her cheeks, or at least wanted too. She couldn't smile around these people... they'd think she'd be a horrible person if they found her smiling and smirking at the emergency cars.

She had won. She knew she was going to win. Once that girl dies... well, then she could go to the next step in her plan... revenge. It was such a great day for Lacey today. A very good day indeed!

Lacey's phone rang. it made her shake out of her happiness. She grabbed her cell phone and answered. Cell phones weer prohibited at her job... well unless of emergencies and when you were on lunch break, or doing an interview somewhere out of the company building.

"Aww... Beatrice, so lovely to hear from you," Lacey said into the phone.

"Yeah, yeah... we got the girl, just as you requested. We are just about to leave the Daily Gazette."

"Well done for a Cahill Beatrice," Lacey said.

"I do hope you realized it was my father, a Cahill who started this organization, so you have no right to say that."

"Well, great job then, bye-bye!"

Lacey hung up. Today was officially the best day ever.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, it was filled with so many cliffhangers wasn't it? Now we know three Circle members (well that are alive) for a fact, they are Lacey Lake, Evan Tolliver, and Beatrice Cahill. I choose Beatrice as one because I thought she would be perfect for the job, especially since her Dad started the group after her mother died. **_Now I have a favor to ask you guys, I have a very important poll on my profile, voting is very well encouraged by me, if you aren't eligible to vote because you don't have an account, please do say your answer in a review!_

**Thank you to those who have reviewed: fantasybooklover, Agent Get Amy And Ian Together, angels101! I appreciate your dedication to this story very much! Can't do it without you! Angels101, I guess your prediction was sort of write, instead of a telegram it was an email... same thing though. And Agent Get Amy and Ian Together, I guess I did have a great Christmas this year present wise. The only thing I didn't get that I wanted was the 39 Clues Rapid Fire books. :( Haven't read them yet, but I'm going to one of these days. What about you?**

**Some people do these... I do them every so often, they are called Fact&Questions. It helps me get to know you readers better, and you to know me better. So you may see me sneak one in every so often.**

**Fact&Question: I'm a swimmer, a summer swimmer on a swim team. And during the early fall I play volleyball for my school. I love to watch gymnastics and basketball and swimming on TV if I can. My question is, do you play sport? If so, what do you play? Do you like to watch any sports on TV or at the actual event? If so, what sports?**

**-MLC99**


	8. Just Curious

_**HAPPY NEW YEAR! **__**Excited much? Obvious I am... Something tells me this is going to be a great year, no idea why. I hope my feeling is right! Here's your chapter, at midnight exactly, well in my timezone at least.**_

* * *

_**Telegram: Chapter Eight**_

It's always the least expected. The last person you'd ever think to be a backstabber is one, well, not all the time. You always have to be careful who you trust. Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. You don't always know who exactly you should beware. You should always keep watching.

"Are you sure this is right?" Atticus asked Dan as he was holding his cell phone getting ready to call Vesper One, to tell them they have a deal. It was the only way they could get the hostages back and stop breaking laws to retrieve them. Vesper One's game would be over, he would stop treating them like slaves. Dan desperately wanted to stop this little 'game.'

"Positive," Dan moved his thumb over the call button, but Atticus stopped him.

"Maybe you should check up on your dad, see if he agrees if this is a good idea." Dan sighed as Atticus told him that. He was right. Dan backed out of Vespers One's number and went to AJT in his contacts and began to type the text.

_Is it safe to trust the Vespers during this whole mess?_

As soon as Dan pressed 'SEND,' his phone began to ring.

"Who is it?" Atticus asked. Dan shot him a serious face. With a sigh, Atticus plopped back into his chair. "I was just curious."

o0o

Jake arrived at the Daily Gazette. He was shocked to hear the screeching sounds of the emergency vehicles all parked outside the business building and to see people all crowding around the building, dying to know what was going on inside the yellow police tape. He was curious as well.

The building was definitely not on fire, there was no yellow, red, and orange flames growing around it. No smoke. Is someone having medical problems? Robbery? Are the people inside being held hostage? Jake didn't know, but he was dying to know. Curiosity killed the cat, but it does make people move forward in life, right? Jake was as curious as the people lined up outside the building.

Arriving to the scene, the Rosenbloom kid completely forgot why he was here in the first place. _What if the Circle got Amy? What if she's hurt... or dead? _Jake shook his head. _She can't be dead! She can't be! _If she was dead, that meant the bad guys had won. No one likes it when the bad guys win, well... except the bad guys.

Something about what was happening, didn't seem to right. Jake was just as curious as the next guy. He was going to find out one way or another. The easy way, or the hard way. But Jake preferred to take the path of least resistance.

As he made his way to tape, he tapped the officer that was standing on the other side on the shoulder. He turned around to the teenage boy and looked at him through his dark licenses. Jake could see his reflection from the sunglasses. _Strange... it isn't that sunny today..._

"Can I help you?" The officer asked Jake. Jake politely nodded his head.

"Um, could you explain to me what's going on?" Jake asked and the officer shrugged.

"Not really. Supposedly some teenage girl, about your age was in an elevator shaft that had broke, but it seems that the elevator is working fine, but this young lady is nowhere to be found."

Jake's heart skipped a beat. A young teenage girl that was about his age. Last time he checked, Amy was a teenage girl, and was his age. Could it have been her? What other teenage girls roam around the Daily Gazette?

"D-do you have the name of the victim?" Jake asked. The officer shrugged.

"We can't give out any more information Sir. The family hasn't been informed yet. I'm sorry, but I'm going to ask you to-"

"Leave? No problem!" Jake began to walk away from the cop. As he made his way through the crowd of people, his phone began to vibrate in his pocket. On a mistake, he accidently pulled out Amy's, and stuffed her phone back into his pocket to answer his.

"Hello?" He said into the small speaker.

"Jake, where are you?" The voice of Atticus Rosenbloom said with his voice in a panic tone.

"Right outside the Daily Gazette, looking for Amy, what's wrong?"

"Amy is what's wrong. Dan just got a call. There has been an accident, and Amy supposedly fell down an elevator shaft and is now missing!" _So it was her the cop was talking about..._

"I know. Why do you think I'm at the place she fell? I'll call you back Att," Jake's voice trailed off as he hung up. His eyes spotted someone. Someone he has seen before. But who was it? That's when it occurred to him. He didn't know the person. He only seen her in picture's. She was a Cahill! But why was she here?

Out of curiosity, Jake approach the lady as she stood by her car talking on her cell phone. He caught up to her while she was still talking.

_"Yeah, yeah... we got the girl, just as you requested. We are just about to leave the Daily Gazette." _The lady paused as she listened to the person on the other line. The said, _"I do hope you realized it was my father, a Cahill who started this organization, so you have no right to say that."_

That's when it came to Jake's mind. The lady he was standing right next to, wasn't just a Cahill. She was a backstabber, she was the Black Circle, and she had Amy! _That's why the cops can't find her! _

Jake had never hit a woman, and was never planning on doing it in his life, especially to the elderly. But the fact that she was a different sex than him and that she had a countless number of wrinkles on her body didn't stop him. It was self defence... well, sort of... not really. But still, she was about to kidnap someone! And it wasn't like he really thought about it. It was more of a reflex. One minute, Jake Rosenbloom was standing next an elderly woman hanging up her cell phone, the next he was lying on top of her pinning her to the ground.

One thing that didn't even pop into Jake's head was that he was in public. He was right behind a huge crowd, and police. But he lucked out and everyone was too busy paying attention to the Daily Gazette and not to old lady being tackled by a teenage boy.

o0o

The last thing Amy Cahill had remembered was plunging to her death. Then everything else was black. Now she found herself with a mild headache in the back of a SUV that seemed to not be going the correct speed limit. Her head pounded and throbbed and everything was spinning for a second.

"Uh... hello?"She croaked. Her mouth was dry, so her voice sounded like a whisper. The head in the driver's seat looked into the mirrors to see Amy in the back seat.

"Thank God you're alive!" A familiar voice said as it turned around looking at the back seat instead of the road. "Sorry, you don't have much time to check someone's pulse when you are trying to kidnap them from kidnappers. You're welcome I saved you by the way."

Amy sighed. It was only Jake. She thought it was someone totally different. "Jake since when do you drive an SUV?"

"I don't... I stole this from your kidnappers, I don't think running with an unconscious body would go very well. I was a little scared of that aunt of yours the most, the other guy I wasn't too scared of... but they will be back for their car... and you."

"Aunt Beatrice?"

"That's right. She's part of the Circle. And the other guy... uh..."

"Uh what?"

"Amy, I'm sorry, but your uh... boyfriend Evan is a-"

"I already know that Jake. Don't need to tell me."

"You do?" Jake asked, his eyes staring into the mirror again looking at Amy.

"Who do you think kidnapped me the first time?"

"I thought you said you were just going into the woods?" Amy fell silent with no words to say. "That's what I thought."

o0o

The car doors slammed as the arrived at the Cahill Mansion. The two made their way to the front door. As Amy placed her hand on the door knob getting ready to open it, Jake grabbed her and locked his lips on Amy's. Amy immediately push away.

"What was that for?"

"Eh... your pay back from me saving your life."

"You're a do-" Amy began to say but her face turned tomato red as she noticed the front door was wide open and Dan and Atticus filled the doorway.

"Gross!" Atticus said in disgust, while Dan just shrugged.

"Meh... better than the Cobra and the geek."

* * *

**Now you probably won't get another chapter for a few days due to the fact of a very fast update. Sorry about the end, I was going to save the kiss until next chapter, but someone was very anxious for the Jamy to kick in, so I added it to this chapter, and I just thought it would be funny to have Atticus and Dan watch it when the two didn't even realize it. SO point is, I hope you liked the chapter. Oh and the reason why Beatrice's phone conversation that Jake over hear is in italics is because it was said in last chapter. This was taking place during Lacey's call with Beatrice. **

**I am planning on writing another 39 Clues story. I'm still debating though. The story I am planning on writing is a songfic... and Amian songfic. I like that pairing too, so their will be both Jamys and Amians from me...most likely never will write an Evamy again, this was only an Evamy because of the break up, and possible future things in this story if I have time for it... Anyway, point is that if you want to see more from me, please do vote in my poll! Sorry if this chapter seemed a little rushed as well.**

**Agent Get Amy and Ian Together, TheTranquilTornado, the 'guest' review, and Paris Cahill for all your reviews. I hope you enjoyed!**

**Fact&Question: My favorite song is "Drops of Jupiter" by Train. My favorite singer is Taylor Swift, and my favorite bands are One Direction, Big Time Rush, Train, and Hot Chelle Rae. I listen to all types of music, country to pop, rock to 80's music, technically, you name it, I listen too it... not counting the music my grandmother listens too. What kind of music do you listen to? Have and favorite songs, favorite artist?**

**Happy New Year!**

**-Michelle Loves Chocolate 99**


	9. Like Father Like Daughter

_**Telegram: Chapter Nine**_

Hope ran her fingers over the laptop. Arthur was suppose to be back hours ago after he had left to the newspaper company called The Daily Gazette after they had heard on the news that there was an accident there and some teenage girl was involved. With every lead they had, they had to follow to track down every Circle member they could.

Arthur had left his phone behind with Hope, and just a few minutes after he had left, a text from her son had came through, asking a question only Arthur could answer. That was hours ago, and with the Black Circle active, one hour seems like a day. Those kids needed an answer.

Hope picked up her husband's phone. She had reopened Dan's text from earlier that day and began to type into the cell phone.

_Your father has been gone for a long time. Left his phone behind with me... I suggest you don't accept until further notice. They may possibly be our only hope to take down the Circle. -Hope Cahill_

Hope didn't exactly like signing off a text to her son with her name, but it was to help give him identification. She place the phone on her leg as she had sat criss-crossed on the bed of their motel. She researched everything she could about the incident today at the Daily Gazette but there was nothing about any names being released.

The Daily Gazette's website didn't have anything about the problem. All it did really was had ads for job openings, a subscription to the newspaper, and a list of the names of the reporters. That's when something had popped into Hope's mind. A name of one of the reporter's rung a bell. Lacey Lake.

This wouldn't be the first time that name has popped up. In fact, when Amy and Dan were all over the news about being on the Interpol's wanted list, she wrote the story about it and sounded very negative about it. It was like she wanted them to get put in jail with no interrogation or court hearing. And also, when Hope was a teenager, still living with Grace and knowing about the clues, Grace mentioned the Black Circle every so often. And when she mentioned them, she often mentioned the last name of Lake. Leonardo Lake was the name he was part of the Circle, in fact was the leader of the Circle at on point. Leonardo was a great friend of her grandfather though she didn't know very much about him since he left out of her mother's life. All she knew was that he left after her uncle's birth and created the Black Circle.

But The question that hope wondered was could Lacey possibly be related to Leonardo? If so, is she part of the circle? She knew Leonardo had a child when he was pretty old. And that he died at an old age on a mission. And when he died, his child was going to take over once it was old enough. Hope needed to know. If she was, Arthur could be in great trouble.

o0o

Arthur Trent was in great trouble. Last time he check, it was daylight outside, he was standing in the crowd of people in front of the Daily Gazette, and he watch the same kid he saw with Amy at the park beat up his aunt-in-law and some other kid and get into a SUV. But before Arthur could go over and talk to the boy, everything just went black. He had no idea why Beatrice Cahill was there getting beat up by a sixteen year old. Not something you see everyday, and will sure to remember it your entire life.

But after all the color went out, we found himself somewhere he never been. Somewhere he never seen. Point it, Arthur didn't know where the heck he was. Why was he so stupid to leave his phone behind with Hope? WHy didn't he bring it to call for help or something. He was an idiot for doing that.

"Well..." A voice said approaching the room Arthur was in. He knew that voice, but who was it. A figure stepped into the room, almost like she just appeared out of the darkness. "Nice to know you have awoken."

"Aw... Ms. Lake, last time I have seen you, you were just ten years old," Arthur kept calm, even though he found out he was kidnapped by a girl we haven't seen in a decade. Lacey Lake gave him a glare.

"That was thirteen years ago Arthur do the math!"

"Why have you brought me here Lacey?"

"Well you see, that boyfriend of your that daughter of yours sort of ruined her second kidnapping by taking out my two best agents and then driving off with my car with Amy in the back seat. And I always have a Plan B. I knew you'd be there after you heard the news. I knew you'd figure out that it was Amy in that elevator, falling into our trap!"

"And-" Arthur began to say but Lacey rudely cut him off.

"And little sweet Amy has no daddy to protect her from the dangers of the Black Circle. That son of yours can't protect Amy at all, especially right now since she no longer trusts him, and also the other two kids, Mr. Clark Kent who is seriously going to pay for taking my car and Superman's little brother. Those three will be taken care of. Don't worry a thing Arthur. I've got this all under control."

"Ms. Lake, do you have a Plan C?"

"No, why?" As Lacey asked, a guilty smile appeared on Arthur's face. One second, Lacey was answering Arthur's question, the next, she was breathing into a chloroform rag.

"I learned to always have some sort of weapon on me Lacey, to always be prepared for things like this. Next time, you should have a Plan C." Arthur spoke, but Lacey hardly heard him as she slowly fell asleep from the drug. Once he knew she was unconscious, Arthur slowly and gently placed the twenty-three year old on the ground and then left to find a way out. Lacey like was just like her father. Always made escapes easy and never had a Plan C. You know what they say, like father, like daughter. Lacey was exactly like her dad. She never saw that coming.

* * *

**Okay, I didn't read through the chapter like I usually do so I'm sorry for errors. In fact, I am looking for a beta reader for this category. I have one but he doesn't read the 39 Clues so I sort of need one that reads 39 Clues. So if any of you are interested, feel free to let me know. **

**Sorry this chapter isn't the best but I felt like I need to give Hope and Arthur a bit more attention. Thank you reviewers! I appreciate it very much! Once again, thanks XxMidnightAssassinxX, Paris Cahill, Jamyfrvr, and Agent Get Amy and Ian Together. I appreciate it very much! And to answer Paris Cahill's question, Atticus and Dan opened the door right before Amy push Jake away. And to answer XxMidnightAssassinxX's question, don't worry, they will eventually in the story.**

**You guys listen to some awesome music as well! I love Adele and Kelly Clarkson too! I forgot to add them on my list, and I never listened to Stuck In Your Radio, but I will put that on my To-Do-List! Now for today's fact and question...**

**Fact&Question: If I was on the 39 Clues comity, and was going to be the author of Day Of Doom, they next and last book of Cahills vs. Vespers, I would have Arthur be alive, and be a good guy. I would have his reason of faking death be explainable like it is in this story. I would have Amy and Jake get together, or Amy and Ian... anyone to get Amy and Evan out, no offence I just don't like how they have everything in common, if they didn't, I'd be rooting for them, but they don't. But I'd most likely have Amy and Jake because well there hasn't been any sparks with Amy and Ian in the second series. And lastly of course, I would have the Cahills defeat the Vespers and save the world and the rest of the living hostages... including Phoenix who really isn't a hostage anymore. If you were to write Day of Doom, what are some things you would put in the story?**

**-MLC99**


	10. My Turn!

_**Telegram: Chapter Ten**_

Awkward is a feeling that occurs in our lives many times. Right now, that's what Amy Cahill had felt. Jake Rosenbloom, out of nowhere, had just leaned in and kissed Amy, and the two's brothers opened the door right before Amy had pushed him off. It was a very awkward and embarrassing moment for Amy. Her cheeks were adorned with a crimson blush, filled with anger and embarrassment. She ignored Atticus and Dan's comments and pushed them aside as she marched into her home.

She had made her way up stairs and shut the door behind her, her back sinking against the door as she fell to the ground. A small smile had formed on her face as she sat on her bedroom floor. Under the feelings of embarrassment, anger, and awkward, she felt a tiny bit happy. She hadn't been kissed like that since... well the last time she had kissed Jake Rosenbloom which was when they were in Timbuktu. She had promised herself that she would forget about that unexpected moment, but really, she never did.

Amy shook the thought out of her head. She needed to focus. The Black Circle is out there and she had to stop them. Whatever they wanted, it had to do something to do with her. Gideon's ring couldn't have been the only thing they wanted. She didn't know what the ring could do. She didn't even know what the Vesper's wanted with it. What was so special about that ring? Only people who knew were Gideon, Oliva, most likely Gideon's father, and probably the Vespers and the Black Circle. Amy was not on that list, but she wish she was. Why was it so valuable? Was it dangerous? If so, why keep it safe? Why not destroy it? That would've been a wise choice.

Amy's green eyes stared at her empty wrist where her Swiss Army watch had always rested, but was stolen. The question couldn't stop racing through her mind. What was she going to do now? Obviously, Evan had set her up, and Linda Lace was a setup just to get her to the Daily Gazette and be kidnapped by the Circle. She couldn't believe Evan was a member and her Aunt Beatrice as well. It was the last thing she had expected and it happened. _Always expect the unexpected._

Amy stood from the floor. This whole time The Black Circle has been making the moves in this game. It was now Amy's turn. Amy was going to make the next move. It was her turn, and she knew exactly what to do next. It was clear now. Too clear. Research was one of Amy's favorite things. All she needed now was to do just a little more research and she would take her turn.

o0o

Hamilton Holt, and Jonah Wizard sat in Jonah's private jet getting ready to leave Mumbai after receiving a call about the Vesper Hunt being delayed and to come back home. The two boys didn't exactly know what was going on, and why the Vesper's would've put their "game" on hold but they did, and Hamilton and Jonah were ordered to report back to Attleboro because of an emergency by Dan.

Jonah had sat in silence, which had bothered Hamilton a lot. Jonah had gone into the deep and dark place in his mind after killing Luna. Hamilton has been worried about him, and in a way was scared. To them, knowing who were Vespers was easier and better than not knowing. Now that Vesper Five had died, it would have to be replaced by another. Would Vesper Six, Cheyenne Wyoming get bumped up? If so, who would take her place? Hamilton and the other Cahills now had to be even more careful.

Hours had gone by, and the plane had landed in the United States, and still, Jonah had not said a word the whole flight. They were now in Attleboro. Amy, Jake, Dan, and Atticus were waiting for them.

"Hey," Dan greeted the relatives he hasn't seen in about two months. "We weren't sure that the Vesper Hunt was postponed until just a few days ago, otherwise we would've called you back earlier."

"It's cool," Hamilton said, Jonah didn't answer. "But why is it being delayed?"

"There's a new threat," Amy began to explain to her cousins. "Not just a threat to us Cahills, but to the Vespers as well. We don't know what they want. But we know the Vespers won't have us do any ransoms because they are busy trying to take down our new threat as well. They call themselves the Black Circle. We know two of the members so far, Beatrice Cahill, and Evan Tolliver, but I have suspicions of another possible suspect."

Atticus tilted his head, "Who?"

"Lacey Lake, employee of the Daily Gazette."

* * *

**Here is chapter ten! Special thanks to my new beta reader, XxMidnightAssassinxX! She did an excellent job with this! I may not thank her every chapter, well simply because I forget things like that, but she will most likely beta read the rest of this story. Thanks so much! What do you think is going to happen next? What's Amy's step? You'll find out pretty soon. And do remember, you most of the time know more then Amy, Dan, etc. That's why they may unravel things that we already knew from previous chapters, such as Lacey Lake being part of the Circle, and still they don't exactly know if she is or not. Oh and sorry about he length! I ran out of ideas for the chapter! I'll try to update as soon as I can, but being back to school is kind of hard to update!**

**Thank you so much to my reviewers! They are, Thepowersss, Paris Cahill, TheTranquilTornado, TheNeigh343, Rightthis332, and KookiesnKreamx3! You six are very well appreciated! Thanks so much! And for those of you who have read Trust No One yet, either, don't have time to do so yet, or it hasn't come out where you live, I will try not to write spoilers in this as much as possible. I might slip one out here and there on accident. I only slipped out one that I know of which was in chapter five. Sorry about that!**

**Fact&Question: I'm not much of a reader, but other than the 39 Clues, my favorite books are _The Gallagher Girls_ series written by Ally Carter, and_ A Year Without Autumn_ written by Liz Kessler. The book series that I am planning on reading next is the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. In fact, I just saw the movie the first time today, while like everyone else that I know has seen it a long time ago. What are your top favorite books not counting The 39 Clues? Have any you haven't read yet that you really want to read?**

**-MLC99**


	11. The Runaway

_**Telegram: Chapter Eleven**_

_Don't trust Vespers. Although they are in trouble as well, they know how to to stab you in the back. -AJT_

Dan typed and tapped at his phone quickly in the backseat of the car that belonged to the Black Circle. Amy, who sat next to him couldn't help but look over curiously. Dan didn't have much privacy when is came to his older sister.

"What are you doing?" Amy asked furiously. Startled, Dan pressed "send" and shoved his phone into his pocket. "Dan, hand it over, last time I checked, you don't pay the bill for that thing, and if you like it or not, I'm in charge of you. Hand it over!"

Atticus, Jake and Dan looked frightened, Jonah and Hamilton didn't exactly know what was going on, and were confused why Amy looked so angry. The two boys didn't know that Dan was contacting AJT, his father. They had no clue. Amy knew Dan was talking to their "deceased" father. But, she didn't know what they were talking about and she wanted to know.

Dan pulled the device from his pocket and handed it over slowly. He didn't want to give it to her, but she was forcing him. It was like his arm was being magnetically pulled to her hand. He placed it in Amy's grip and she browsed through it. Poor Dan wished he had just a little more privacy, but obviously, that was way too much to ask for.

"I knew you would do it!" Amy shouted in anger. She was angry, and upset with her brother. "Dan, we don't know who to trust. It's the Clue Hunt all over again. Yes, he is alive, but we don't know if we can trust him. Evan is a Circle, and so is Aunt Beatrice, Aunt Beatrice was probably the last person I expected to be a bad guy, and she is. Stop communicating with him! Please?"

Dan shook his head and snatch his phone back. "You don't know that! If he is evil, prove it!"

"He left us as orphans. He left us in the hands of a Circle member. He lied!"

"And you lied to me about being kidnapped! And your watch being gone. You didn't tell me about those. You've lied to me as well! Doesn't that make you evil too?" Though Jake was still driving the car, Dan didn't hesitate to open the door. After unbuckling his seat belt, Dan Cahill jumped out of the moving car. He landed on his stomach and scrambled to his feet. Dan fled the opposite direction the SUV was driving.

"Great!" Hamilton said sarcastically. "Now what are we going to do?"

"He'll be back," Amy replied. "Trust me."

o0o

Arthur stormed into the motel room, as Hope let out a sigh of relief after worrying so much. He was back, which meant she didn't have to worry about him. Hope stood from the bed she was sitting on.

"Where have you been?" She asked him politely. "You've been gone for hours! Dan texted you, the Vespers are wanting to team up with us Cahills."

Arthur didn't reply to Hope. He grabbed the phone and immediately told him "no." Arthur put the electronic on the table and took off his jacket. Hope sat back down on the bed and opened her laptop. Her fingers began to type.

"You know that girl we haven't seen in a few years, Lacey Lake? I found evidence that she is part of the Black Circle," Hope paused. She had waited for a response, but Arthur hadn't said a word since he opened that door. She continued after a few seconds. " I think her father had connections with my Grandfather, James Cahill. I think he was his partner in inventing the Black Circle," She paused again and the silence still filled the room. She was frustrated and had began to get furious. "Damn it, Arthur! Say something!"

Arthur nodded his head as he sat on the bed next to her. "You're right, but Lacey isn't just part of the Circle. She _is_ the Circle, she's the leader!"

Hope's body went numb. She was shocked. She knew Lacey when she was a kid. Lacey was very nice, very kind and generous. How could someone with such kindness be in charge of evil? Sweet little Lacey Lake would never do that, well, the one Hope had known. The women gulped and shook what she was thinking about out of her head, she was now the one not speaking. "Well, that little girl has gotten herself into a lot of trouble."

Arthur shook his head. "No, she's twenty-three now. If you ever run into her, don't call her little." Hope's head tilted, and her face went from a rosey pink to a ghostly white. What did Arthur mean? "She kidnapped me at the Daily Gazette. She meant to kidnap Amy, but had failed. She took me instead so the two of us can't protect Amy from the Black Circle. Lacey isn't that sweet little girl we used to know. She's changed a lot, now that she is the leader of an evil organization."

Before Hope could reply, the phone on the nightstand buzzed. Arthur reached for it and opened the text. His face expression changed, shock filled his eyes, maybe even fear? Hope had never seen that look in his eyes. She didn't know what feeling it was. "What is it?"

Arthur looked up from the phone. "Dan says he is running away!"

Hope's head fell into her palms. Dan was running away, with the less people around Amy, the easier it would be for the Black Circle to get a hold of her and finish their unfinished business. Lacey was always a determined young girl. She never really gave up on anything. Lacey wouldn't fail this plan over her dead body! The danger around her daughter was going to grow.

o0o

Dan didn't exactly know where he was going. He just kept running, and running. He came to a bench and sat down. It was right in front of a grocery store. It was the same bench that Amy had sat down at when Evan had kidnapped her after she met with her father for the first time in years, since his death. Anyone who walked by him could tell he was upset, even though not a tear was being shed. An elderly lady began to approach Dan. Dan looked up and saw her smiling face. A plastic bag of things she had just bought rested in each of her hands.

"Dear, why are you so sad?" She asked and took the empty seat next to him. Dan shook his head.

"I'm fine Ma'am. Thank you though!"

The lady shook her head. "No, something is wrong. Oh sweet child, would you like to talk it over? You can come over to my house and tell me about it over a cup of tea? Or something you children find much tastier these days, hot cocoa? My children and grandchildren say I make the best hot chocolate they've ever tasted."

Dan rose up happily, and the lady stood up as well. Smiles grew on their faces. Something about that woman just reminded him of what it was like having a grandmother. He missed Grace so much, and this lady sort of in the smallest way reminded him of her, but he didn't know what exactly it was. So, he accepted and the lady led him to her house.

* * *

**For children who are reading this, which you really shouldn't since it is rated T for drug use and swear words, never go run off with strangers, even if they say they know your parents, or something like "Your sister is in the hospital" don't go with them. People in the world lie... and speaking of lies, I made a mistake on chapter 9, Jake is not 16, he is 18. Thank you Paris Cahill for pointing that out to me, and thank you XxMidnightSolsticexX, for beta reading this chapter!**

**Everyone who reviewed, Agent Get Amy And Ian Together, Paris Cahill, Amazing Girl, TheTranquilTornado, ****XxMidnightSolsticexX, Jamyfrvr, and Mila-is-a-bookworm-101, you seven are wonderful! Thank you so much for you dedication to the story! XxMidnightSolstricexX has inferred what will happen next, she is partly right, partly wrong, but what do you predict? To Amazing Girl, I have no idea why, but every antagonist I do I like to call them something to do with a circle. I was a little upset with Ally Carter because she stole my idea! JK! Can't wait til GG6! On January second a free ebook will be coming out it is a crossover between GG and her other book series, it stars Macey and another girl for the different serious. Most importantly, it's free!XD **

**Oh, and Jamyfrvr wants everyone to check out the band Stuck On Your Radio, she says it's a great band, but just doesn't have a lot of listeners! I'll check them out one of these days, just not right now, so many things going on!**

**Fact&Question: I love animals! My favorites are elephants, and brown bears. The two of them are just two cute! My favorite kind of pets are dogs and rocks( yes I do have two pet rocks! I know I'm a bit strange, but they can never die, never need to be feed, they just sit there? It's the perfect pet!) I have three dogs, a German Shepard/Dachsund, a miniture dachsund/ regular dachshund/ Rat Terrior (who is currently being very annoeying right now!), and a full breed Rat Terrior( which is the best dog ever!). I have two pet rocks, named Penni and Charlie. And I previously had two gold fish, and I am not going to discuss the terrible things that happened to them...:( What are you're favorite animals? Got any pets?**


	12. The Sweet Smell of Bitter Almonds

_**Telegram: Chapter Twelve**_

Amy wasn't too concerned about Dan, this wasn't the first time he had ran away from her, he did it back when they were in China. That was the longest time she had been separated from her brother since before he was born. Amy knew he'd come back, just maybe not right way like everyone else in the car was thinking.

"Are you sure you don't want be to turn around and follow him?" Jake asked, his eyes looked into the mirror as he stared at Amy's reflection. Amy sighed in annoyance.

"For the trillionth time, I'm positive. This isn't the first time he has run away."

"Dan ran away before?" Atticus asked turning around from the passenger seat.

"Oh yeah," Jonah said. It was the first time he had spoken since he gotten off of the plane. "Last time, if it wasn't for me, he'd probably still be wandering around Asia!" Jonah leaned toward Amy. "You're welcome by the way!"

"First, he was taken by the Cobras when he ran off, that's how he found you, second, you lied to me and told me you had no idea where he was, lastly, you nearly left him in a trap set by the Cobras, why should I thank you?" Jonah just rolled his eyes and sat in silence after she spoke.

"Why did Dan run away?" Atticus asked, and Amy let out another sigh.

"Long story short, sort of the same reason he just ran away now," Hamilton filled in for Amy. "Back in the days we thought Madrigals were the bad guys!"

"So are we still going through with our plan?" Jake asked.

Amy shrugged. "I don't think so... let's just go back to my house, maybe Dan is there waiting for us right now!"

o0o

Dan sat down the the couch of the old lady's house. He placed his elbow on the lace doily that was on top of the arm of the couch. The house had smelled of cheap grandma perfume. It made Dan's eyes water because it was so strong, but he didn't say anything. He sat in silence as he patiently waited for the woman to come back into the living room.

Minutes later, the lady returned carrying a silver tray with a floral teapot and a matching cup. The lady placed the tray onto the coffee table, then tilted the teapot, and poured the hot liquid into the cup. She smiled as she handed it to Dan.

"Sorry. I ran out of those things you children like to have in there, what was that? Oh yes, whipped cream and marshmallows! I'm sorry about that, dear. Now, tell Granny Haze about what's upsetting you, darling."

"Granny Haze?" Dan's head tilted. The woman didn't let her smile fall, it gave Dan the chills.

"It's short for Hazel," She said. "Now drink up and speak up!"

Dan swirled the beverage in a circle around the cup. It was too hot to drink. "My mother and father had left when I was three. They had very important and private things to take care of. I was technically raised as an orphan as I grew up. They come back ten years later, and my older sister doesn't want to trust them, or be apart of them ever again. I got mad and ran off."

Hazel's smile grew wider like it was a good thing. "Well sweetheart, I understand why your sister would do such things. She's angry, she's upset. You were only three when it happened, you have technically lived your whole life without them. At that age is when your memory starts to develop. Since she is older, she remembers what it was like being a family, and what it was like not being a family, while you simply just remember not being a family," She said, and her hand gripped the pot.

"Would you like some more, Dear?" She asked. Dan hasn't even tasted it yet, and it was still pretty full. She didn't let him respond as she reached over and poured just a tiny bit more into the cup. "Drink up, Dear, it will make you feel better! I promise!"

Dan spun the brown beverage in circles again. He stared at it. The smelled of it ran up to his nostrils as he raise the cup closer to his mouth. It smelled simply as chocolate and almonds mixed together, bitter almonds that is. Maybe her secret to making it delicious is almonds? Dan took a small sip and placed the cup onto the coffee table.

"Aren't you going to have more, Dear?" She asked. "It does taste good, doesn't it?"

Dan didn't respond. His hands wrapped around his head as a headache formed and grew. His head had throbbed and pounded and the room spun. He forgot why he came here. He forgot where he was. He forgot who the stranger who was sitting next to him was, and why she was smiling. It had came to a point that Dan couldn't breathe. He had asthma attacks before but none of them included headaches, and confusion. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his inhaler. Amy had been getting onto him about taking it everywhere he goes because you never know when you'll need it. Although he never liked it, he appreciated that he remembered to put it in his pocket today. But before he could use the inhaler again, everything went black.

Hazel stood from her chair once she realized he was unconscious. The plan had worked perfectly well. She walked over to the hall closet and opened the door, letting out a man about twenty years younger than she was.

"I have done everything you have asked of me," Hazel told the man. "That boy has drank whatever you had told me to put inside his drink. Now can you please leave me alone?"

"Not just yet," He said. "How much of the serum did you put in his drink?"

"Mr. Rosenbloom, I had given him the whole vial, just like you commanded me to do."

Mark Rosenbloom's face expression went from calm to mad. "I've told you to give him half of the vial, not the whole thing! I didn't want you to kill him!"

"I've killed him?" Hazel whispered softly in a voice that had sounded hurt.

"Ms. Welling, since you can not obey orders, and also since I can't be too sure if you can be trusted to keep this whole mess a secret," Mark's voice trailed off as he pulled a knife from his belt. It all happened so quick, Hazel didn't even notice that he had a knife until she felt it enter her stomach. The dark color of red poured from her belly. "Thanks for trying to help though."

Mark grabbed his bag from the closet and rushed over to Dan. If she gave him the whole vial, he would be dead in minutes. He rushed through his bag and pulled out a needle, and long needle and stabbed it into the thirteen year old's neck, emptying the liquid into Dan's body. The liquid wouldn't be strong enough to cure the boy, but will keep him alive until Mark could get a hold of the antidote.

Mark grabbed his bag and threw Dan over his shoulder before cautiously leaving the house. He threw Dan in the back seat and hopped in the driver's seat. As he pulled out of the Hazel's driveway, he pulled out his cell phone.

"You have reached Lacey Lake..." Mark hung up. Her phone didn't even ring before going to voicemail. He dialed another number.

"Mr. Rosenbloom?" A voice said over the speaker.

"I've got the boy, but Hazel Welling did not obey orders. She had gave him an extra dose of cyanide of what she was suppose to. No worries, though, I'll take care of him. How's your part going, Evan?"

"Not so hot. Lacey has managed to take care of Arthur, but we haven't been able to get a hold of her. Beatrice and I didn't exactly get to take Amy away though."

"I hope you realize that once Lacey hears about this, you two are going to be in serious trouble."

"She already knows, and if it wasn't for that son of yours we would've been able to succeed our part of the job."

Mark paused for a moment. "Which one?"

"Who do you think? The one who has a crush on Amy! He stole Lacey's car as well!"

"Don't worry. I'll take care of him. In the meantime, keep trying to get in touch with Lacey. Call me when you hear from her. Bye!" Mark hung up his phone and began to drive a little faster. He went a little bit more farther and then turned into the Black Circle's Headquarters. He grabbed Dan and hurried inside, and searched for the antidote.

* * *

**Another member of the Circle is astablished! How many is that now, four? I lost count. There is one more member left to be revealed! Aren't you excited? This story ia almost over! Yay! Once this is done, I will work on more 39 Clues stories for you, I have two in mind at the moment. **

**BTW Dan was drugged with cyanide if any of you didn't get that. I hinted it off by saying his drinked had smelled like bitter almonds which cyanide sometimes does smell like that, and also said it in the phone call, but I wanted to clearify that with you all so you wouldn't get confused. Also, my sourse for research on cyanide didn't give me a full understanding for the antidote, do the antidote to cure Dan isn't true, but the drug is real.**

**Thanks for by beta, for reading this chapter and fixing mistakes. Also thanks to you who reviewed, Agent Get Amy and Ian Together, ThePerson0001, Paris Cahill, Mila-is-a-bookworm, Amazing Girl, and pony34533! I hope you liked this chapter!**

**Sorry, I'm in a little hurry, so there will by no F&Q tonight! Sorry!**

**-MLC99**


	13. Showtime!

_**Telegram: Chapter Thirteen**_

Lacey Lake's eyes flashed opened. Her head spun. The last thing she remembered was talking to Arthur Trent, now she was lying on the floor of the room she was talking to him in, with a rag lying on the floor next to her. Lacey reach for it, and examined it. Suddenly, she dropped it.

"Chloroform," Lacey mumbled. "Should've known he'd do something as stupid as that!"

Lacey stumbled to her feet, and slid the phone out of her pocket. She had been unconscious for twenty-eight hours, and had a million missed calls, and text messages from her fellow colleagues in the Black Circle. By the looks of it, she wasn't the only one to fail at her part of the plan.

Unlike the Vespers and Cahills, the Circle doesn't have a trillion members. Their lack of people is what makes them so powerful, because for you to join the group, you have to have the brains. Only the smartest of the smart can be in the Circle. You don't choose to be in the Circle, the Circle chooses you. Their smarts act like the amount of members the Vespers and Cahills have. To be dangerous, you don't need armies of four-hundred, you just got to prove that you have power, and aren't afraid to use it.

The Circle only has four members besides for the leader. Lacey was sure to pick them out carefully and wisely. She picked the people who would destroy the lives of the Cahills. The Circle hates the Vespers and Cahills, but the Cahills are the reason why they hate the Vespers. Destroying the Cahills, would destroy the Vespers, but destroying the Vespers would not destroy the Cahills.

Lacey ran through the contacts in her phone.

Agent Evan Tolliver. Lacey picked him for one reason, well except the that he is smart, he was close to one of the Madrigal leaders, Amy Cahill. Lacey's target on taking down the Cahills. He was sneaking information from the Vespers and Cahills to her, and that is how they knew when was the perfect time to attack.

Agent Beatrice Cahill. Lacey really had no choice with her. In fact, once the plan was done, she was planning on taking care of that wrinkly thing. She was only a member because her father was the one who started the organization. Poor Bea didn't get to take over the Circle once he died. It was Lacey's father who took over it, James Cahill's partner in crime. That's how Lacey inherited this society instead of Beatrice.

Agent Mark Rosenbloom: Why him? Anyone without brains could guess why he was chosen to be in the Black Circle! He's majored in so many things, and his son is extremely smart too, if you wondered why Atticus Rosenbloom is very smart, well all you have to do is follow his genes. To where he came from!

The next one! Lacey didn't even bother to think why she hired this one. Her thumb landed on top of the call button. She listened to the rings and didn't even bother to wait for an "Hello."

"Failed plans. Everyone failed. Rosenbloom over-drugged the kid, Tolliver and Cahill have lost the girl due to Rosenbloom's oldest kid, and Arthur Trent has escaped from the warehouse in the woods. Get message clear to the other agents. It's showtime!" Lacey hung up without waiting on it's word. Lacey knew no more words needed to be said once she had told him that. Doom was about to roll over the Cahills.

* * *

**Short chapter, huh? Yes I do realize this is only 600 words long, but don't worry next chapter should be long-ish. No promises though! Quick question, who do you think the final member of the Circle is? I'll give you a hint, it's not made up by me. It had appeared in the series before, but I'm not going to mention how many times...**

**Thanks to my beta reader for fixing mistakes in this chapter. Also that you to those who had reviewed! They story only has two more chapters left and then it will be done! Excited for the end? I am! So back to topic... Mila-is-a-bookworm-101, Yeah I'm awkward, Agent Get Amy and Ian Together, Paris Cahill, ThePersion3343, and shyann for reviewing! Thank you so much!**

**Fact&Question: I am so excited for Day Of Doom and the new series, Unstoppable to be released! But I am even more excited to discover the identity of Vesper One! Who do you think is under this whole plan? My suspects are Arthur Trent, but after taking the time to decode things, he isn't my top suspect. Second in line, I'm thinking Dave Spemier (is that how you spell his last name? I totally forgot!). He was the burn on his hand, like Vesper One had said he had, and his name is an anagram! But my cons for him is that he is very young, like early twenties, and V1 is suppose to have a dead wife and two children in MA. The person who is currently at the top of my list is Mark Rosenbloom. Why? Well a lot of clues point to him. First, he has the brains! Not only does he have a dead wife, he has two of them! Jake's mother and Atticus's! Then he has two children, Jake and Atticus that live in MA! Only clue about V1 that we have left is the burn. And we don't even know if he has one or not!**** Also, when McIntyre died *sniff* he recognized the guy, so it had to be someone who we met before Dead of the Night of Kings Ransom ( not sure which one it was, it was one of those two.) Who are your top suspects for V1 and why? **

******-MLC99**


	14. Idiot!

_**Telegram: Chapter Fourteen **_

Jake Rosenbloom followed behind the others as they walked towards the front door of the house. Everyone had seemed disappointed to find that there was no Dan in the house. Dan had surely picked the wrong time to run away, with the fact that dangerous people were lurking. With the Black Circle plotting against them, Dan took a risky move on leaving.

Jake pulled his cell phone out of his pocket as it started to buzz. His dad had sent him a fourth text message with in the same hour. All of them saying the same thing, _"You and Atticus both need to come home." _Jake put it back into his pocket in annoyance. His father was getting on his nerves. The first time was absolutely fine. Second time, was indicating he was desperate. Third, he was getting very annoying, and fourth was even more annoying. He already told his father after the first text that he and Atticus were sort of busy.

"Where could he have possibly ran off to in a time like this?" Atticus said, collapsing onto the couch just like Dan would've done if he was there. "Amy, why don't you try calling him again?"

Amy shrugged. "There's no use. Trying to find someone who doesn't want to be found is kind of hard sometimes, and this is one of those times. And plus, Dan is mad at me. He won't answer any of my calls, or text anyway."

"Did you try to GPS him?" Hamilton asked. He knew what the Gideon Satellite could do, since his phone was connected to it as well.

"Can't," Amy say quickly. "His phone is shut off. Sinead never got the chance to update our phones so we can be able to GPS our phones while they're turned off."

"By the way," Jonah cut into the conversation, changing the whole subject. He was starting to come out of his dark spot and back into the light. "Where is Sinead anyway? I haven't seen her in a while. Doesn't she live in the guest house?"

"When we came back home since we haven't been asked to do anything, Sinead said she was going to hang out with Ned until the hunt was back on. She hasn't called or anything. That's why she hasn't been around."

"Back to the subject," Jake butted in. "How are we going to get a hold of Dan? For all we know, the Circle could be kidnapping him right now."

Amy shook her head. "We aren't going to do anything but wait. If Dan wasn't kidnapped, he will walk through those doors within a few minutes. The kid has no money and will likely starve from not eating since lunch. Dan isn't a pleasant person to be around when hungry, and all of you in here know that. If he was kidnapped, they will most likely not kill him. It's me they want, remember? Worst case scenario is that they do kill him. If Dan was kidnapped, the Circle, Vesper One, or my father would have contacted us already. And since I don't hear any of our phone's going off, I think we are safe and should just relax. Dan will be running through those doors any second!" Amy took a deep breath. But before she could even breathe out, her phone had chirped a noise. Her mouth had went dry as the moisture in her mouth vanished. Her heart began to race faster.

Amy reached for her phone that set on the table. A text from an unknown number had come through. She opened it.

_I don't want to know how, but they have Dan. They won't hurt him, well they won't hurt him badly as long as orders are followed. Don't follow them though. I'll take care of this mess. Just relax. But do be careful. They are coming after you next Amy. -AJT_

o0o

Lacey had walked into the main room of the Black Circle's headquarters. She hugged an orange spiral notebook next to her chest as her eyes scanned the room. Everyone was here, all except one. He was late again and Lacey let out a disappointing sigh. She dropped the notebook onto the table as she pulled out her chair to sit down at the table.

"Late again!" Lacey said as she heard the door slam behind her. Everyone at the table was silent. They knew he was in trouble and Lacey was mad. Wait, Lacey was mad, scratch that out. Lacey was furious! Ian Kabra walked to his seat, and didn't eye Lacey at all, but she gave him the death glare.

"How dare you piss her off!" Beatrice said angrily. She wasn't afraid of the twenty year old, but she knew what she was like when she was anger and Beatrice didn't want to deal with an angry Lacey.

"Mr. Kabra!" She said. The silent room seemed even more silent than it was besides for Lacey's voice. "I expected you to be the first one here! Or at least one of them since I had given you instructions to get everyone here for the meeting!" Ian opened his mouth to speak up for him but Lacey stopped him. "Save it Kabra! I do not want to hear it! I will discuss this problem with you later, right now, we need to think happy things. Now is the time to take action!"

Lacey opened the notebook. She flipped through multiple pages with lots of scribbly handwriting on every line of the page. Her face lit up once she reached a page towards the back of the book.

"As all of you know, this journal isn't just any journal. it is our society's history. We, the Black Circle members had promised our loyalty as we were initiated into the group. We had dedicated our lives to take down the Cahills and Vespers. Why? Because our founder was furious with the Vespers chasing him, and his family members fighting all the time. This journal is what had made us who we are today! Anybody besides us five and past members would think of this as an old notebook that can and should be tossed into the trash bin."

"Ms. Lake," Mark interrupted kindly. "I'm sorry but could you speed this up? Dan will only stay asleep for so long, I need to get back to his location before he wakes."

"I thought he was only down stairs?" Evan questioned. "It's not like he's across the street or somewhere else where he can escape without you noticing."

Lacey shuffled in her seat to keep her posture straight. "Lady and gentlemen, it's our time to take down the Cahills and Vespers. The Black Circle has been alive for some years, trying to take down those two groups and now we are about to complete it's goal." Lacey looked at everyone's faces. "You all know the plans of tonight, in the exact order, exact time. You are dismissed to begin this little... What should we call it?" She pondered for a moment before speaking "Game."

o0o

Hamilton stared and waited patiently on the couch. He hasn't been in the house since it was burned down at the funeral two years ago, when it was just and only Grace's house. The house was quiet because no one knew what to do next, and Hamilton wasn't a fan of silence.

It seemed like everyone just gave up after Arthur's message. They now knew that Dan was kidnapped and they weren't too happy that what they predicted wasn't true; that Dan wasn't kidnapped, he only left for a walk to clear his mind. Well he did go on his walk but it turned into something horrible.

"You can trace text messages, just like you can trace phone calls, can't you?" Amy asked, breaking the silence. She was in a room full of boys, one of them had to know the answer.

"Yes, but your father is texting you by an unknown number, you can't trace those without going to the police," Jonah answered. " I don't think you'd like to tell the police about this. And most likely your parents aren't going by their legal names, and are using false identities."

"Damn," Amy mumbled softly.

" You know, this whole thing had started because of the Telegram we had received just a few nights ago." Atticus said. "If you and Dan never received that piece of paper, you could've avoided this whole problem."

Jake shook his head at his brother. "No. If none if us knew about the Circle and Arthur never made contact, it would've been even easier for the Circle to get a hold of Amy. If we didn't know, Amy probably would be dead by now."

"But Dan wouldn't be," Amy mumbled clearly. Everyone in the room looked at her. They were shock of what they had heard. "What? Do you not think that the Circle already finished him off? We aren't doing anything to fix this mess anyway. Sitting like lumps on logs isn't going to help keep Dan alive at all! It's like we are just waiting for them to knock on our door and murder us too!"

Amy had given up. To her, it wasn't worth it anymore. The Black Circle was going to win. Amy didn't know what to do to defeat them. There was no point to her anymore. It was crystal clear to everyone in the room that she was done, no question about it!

Jake took Amy by her arm, and dragged her into the kitchen.

"What the hell is wrong with you Amy?" Jake asked, while his hands gripped her shoulders, gently shaking her. He never seen Amy Cahill give up and he wasn't planning to, especially not at this moment.

"What do you think?" Amy snapped. "My brother is dead! Do I need to spell it out for you?! Dead! D-E-A-D, DEAD!"

"We don't know that yet! For all we know, he could be roaming through the city, ESCAPING from the Circle! I doubt he is dead! Why are you giving up, Amy?"

"You don't get it do you?" She said, shaking her head. "You have a perfect family. You're not a Cahill, you don't understand. Cahills aren't normal. We hurt, we kill, we do horrible things to our relatives. We betray. I've betrayed Dan. I've betrayed him so many times. If I didn't upset him, he would be with us right now! Instead, my only relative right now is possibly dead! We have no idea where he could possibly be. We have no contact with the Circle."

"Amy, an hour ago, you had hope, what happened to that?" Jake questioned. "Ever since that letter came the other night, you changed, especially today. The old Amy would be looking for Dan right now with faith, not standing right here and saying that we have lost and there is no chance."

Amy stood still in silence. She realized what Jake said was exactly right. She should be looking for Dan right now instead of giving up on him. Who was she to let her brother just die? Amy wasn't exactly sure what had happened to her that made her give up like that, but she swore to herself to never do that again, especially with a life on the line.

"I'm sorry," Amy said as she looked down to the floor. Her voice got soft and sad, and tears began to flow from her eyes. "I'm a horrible person, aren't I?"

Jake shook his head and a small smile grew on his face. "No," He said. "You're an idiot." Amy took her eyes off the floor and looked at him in curiosity. Of all things Amy thought Jake Rosenbloom would say to her, she never expected to hear that. But before she could speak, Jake continues voicing his thoughts.

"You're an idiot because you think you're a bad a person. Anyone who didn't even have brains would tell you that. Amy, you're the smartest person I know besides my brother. I've never seen anyone so excited about researching something that most people find boring, especially your brother. You realized your mistake, so now, let's go save Dan!"

Jake turned around to exit the room but before he took a second step, Amy, grabbed his arm. She pulled him back and kissed him on his lips. Jake gently pushed away and looked Amy in the eyes, and kindly smiled. He cupped her head in his hands, and wiped away her dripping tears with his thumbs, and pulled her into a long, passionate kiss.

* * *

**I hope the length and the end of this chapter helped out with what happened in 13. All the members are known now, well we know them but our protagonist don't. I love irony in my stories if you haven't realized. I couldn't think of who should be the final member and that's why it was him. But I will state a good reason why he is a member in the next chapter. Also, if any of you were wondering where the heck all the Jamy is, I was saving more for this chapter. One more chapter left until this is finish! If you haven't noticed, the title of the chapter comes from the ending.  
**

**Thank you so much to all those who reviewed! PERSON090, Agent Get Amy And Ian Together, and Thepowersss are well loved by me! Thanks for taking the time to review you three. Love you so much! Oh and shout out to by beta, XxMidnightSolsticexX!  
**

**Fact&Question: My favorite chapter in this story is Chapter 12: The Smell of Bitter Almonds. Why? I don't know why, it just seemed very suspenseful and it was very fun to write. But I felt really bad for Hazel though, didn't you? Poor thing was only doing what she was told, and one mistake caused her her life... ): My worst favorite chapter is Chapter Five: Lost Trust. I just don't like the content of the chapter. My question to you is what is your favorite chapters/parts of this story? Your worst?**

**-MLC99**


	15. Author's Note

_Hey guys! I haven't updated this since February second. I'm really sorry about that! Don't worry though, I'm alive! _

_I really just wanted to say that the last chapter should be up soon. One of the reasons for the delay is because of it's length. I'm right about half way finished with it and it has a total of 3,000 words written at the moment, which is doubled of my actual chapter length. Another reason is that I have been busy with school and such. I did have deadlines for this chapter for Valentine's Day but I dropped that because have a due date puts be under a lot of pressure and my writing would turn out crappy. Another chapter I wouldn't mind not making it as perfect as possible but I think the most important chapters of a story is the first, and the last. The last chapter is so long I might even have to split it into two parts. _

_So just be patent. I plan to have it done by next weekend, because I have no school on Friday so that means more free time. If I don't have it up by then, I'm really sorry. I'm going to get as much writing into it today, but I'm not feeling very well at the moment, so it probably won't be much. My point is on writing this is just to keep on waiting because even though it's been a long wait, the chapter would be worth it, I promise._

_-MLC99_


	16. 15: Horrible Storm

_**Telegram: Chapter Fifteen**_

The rain danced as it dripped down the window. Amy, Jonah, Hamilton, Jake, and Atticus waited silently and and impatiently in the living room as the storm had come over Massachusetts. All eyes had rested on Amy's cell phone. Although she had faith, she didn't have any leads on Dan's whereabouts. No one had any ideas of where to search for him. All hope had rested on Arthur Trent, who Amy still didn't fully trust.

Hamilton squirmed in his seat, like a two year old at Sunday Mass. The house was awkwardly silent, and the wait was killing him. They've been waiting for at least thirty minutes, which in this case, was thirty minutes too long. As time flew by, every heart in the room worried just a tiny bit more. Not just for Dan's life, but also for Arthur's.

The wind was picking up speed outside, and the gray clouds seemed to get darker. It had only been raining for about twenty minutes, but water was starting to puddle in the mud. The rain was coming down hard and fast. The visibility was poor, you could see much from outside the window. The looks of it, the storm was worsening by half a second.

At the crack of thunder, the whole house light up, and Amy's phone tweeted a noise. Eight eyes looked at Amy as she read the message silently. Her palms were sweaty from anxiously holding the electronic in her hand. Amy's grip had tightened as she read it, and her cheeks turned read. She threw the cell phone onto the table with force, standing from the couch.

Amy wanted to scream. She want to punch the wall. She was furious! She wished she was born into a regular family. Clearly, she wasn't since people wanted to murder her for being a part of it. She wanted to turn back time to fix this whole mess. She wished Dan never had been so stupid to run off! But you can't fix the past by going back into time. Only the future can mop up the mess. Or make the mess bigger. To attempt to fix the problem, you have to keep moving forward.

"So..." Jake awkwardly said. Everyone clearly knew that whatever Amy had read wasn't good news at all. "What next?"

Amy turned to give him a look. Jake knew it was probably dumb to ask what he had done since Amy was seething with rage, but it was something that he and the others in the room needed to know and Amy couldn't keep it a secret. Amy let out a sigh.

"Same thing as earlier," She said. "He doesn't want us to do anything but wait."

"Than we wait," Atticus said. "Arthur knows more about the Black Circle than we do. It's best that we do what he says. We don't know how dangerous these people are, and plus we don't even know who else is on the team besides for Lacey Lake, Evan Tolliver, and Beatrice Cahill. Not knowing who else is on the squad is sort of bad."

"I just don't get why the Circle is a bigger threat than the Vespers," Hamilton said. "They don't seem as harmful and mean as the Vespers are. I don't see what bad they have done besides take the ring away, attempt to kidnap you Amy twice, and then kidnap Dan."

"Yep, surely none of those things are evil," Jake said sarcastically as he pulled his phone from his pocket. About an hour ago, his father had sent him dozens of text messages, and now he was calling him. Jake stepped out of the room to answer the call.

As Jake walked out, Amy's phone chirped again. Surprisingly, the phone had survived the hard crash it had on the table. _Strange,_ Amy thought jumping after the phone, _I didn't reply a message back to him._

_You want your brother? Come and get him. Meet me at the alley a saw you in the other day. Come alone, or else... you may never see Dan again. -Evan_

"Who was that?" Jonah asked Amy. She gulped before she answered.

"Uh... I have to go," Amy grabbed a coat off the coat rack. "I'll be back soon. Just stay here."

"We'll go with you!" Atticus said following behind her, reaching for his jacket, but before he grabbed it, Amy grabbed his wrist.

"No, you'll stay here... with Jonah, Hamilton and Jake."

"Amy, where are you going?" Jonah asked as she reached for the doorknob. Amy shook her head.

"No where important."

"Well it must be important since you are in such a big rush," He commented. Hamilton grabbed Amy's shoulder after Jonah's comment. Amy tried to shake it off, but he was a Tomas, which made him more stronger and tougher than her a long ways. His fingernails dug into her skin as his grip tightened when she struggled to free herself.

"Amy, you're like a little sister to me, I'm not letting you leave until you tell us where you are going!"

o0o

Mark Rosenbloom's eyes stared straight at the sleeping thirteen year old, who was going to wake up in at least an hour. No matter how many attempts he did to get his two kids away from Amy, especially Jake. His hand was held next to his ear as the phone had rung over and over again until finally, it picked up. Before the person on the other line could get a word in, Mark had opened his mouth and began to speak. Wait, scratch that, Mark was yelling.

"JACOB ROSENBLOOM WHERE ON EARTH ARE YOU AND YOUR BROTHER!" Mark knew exactly where they were. In fact, he knew exactly where they have been during their travels with the Cahill siblings. He let them slide their way out of trouble but now they had to get away from Amy. More people that they had on the team, it would be harder to take her down.

"Dad," Jake said through the speaker. "I'm kind of busy right now, and besides, Atticus and I are in Italy remember?"

Mark calmed down his fake anger a bit, but he still pretended. After all he did almost forget that they are suppose to be in Italy. "I know you two came back home. But you two haven't even bothered to come back to the house and you've both been here for quite some time Jake. You two need to come home...NOW!"

"We will be home tomorrow Dad, alright. We are uh... kind of in a... a game and we can't exactly quit, not at this moment."

Mark closed his eyes. He knew exactly what game he meant. He paused for a moment and kept his eyes close. Thinking of what to say next. Unfortunately for Mark Rosenbloom, he didn't get the chance to say his next words. The last thing Mark knew, he was standing with his eyes closed talking to his son, the next, he felt a sharp pain on the back of his head, and everything went black. Mark was lying unconscious on the floor and Dan Cahill stood over his body with a metal lead pipe in his hands.

The sound of the metal weapon hitting the floor made Dan's head hurt. He didn't really know where he was or how he got there, but it was clear to him that he was drugged. Dan picked up the phone that was dropped on the floor next to Mark Rosenbloom's body. Before he hung up the phone, his eyes scanned the screen and recognized the name of the person he was speaking to.

"Jake?" Dan said into the phone. "Jake, is that you?"

o0o

Amy's coat was cloth, and didn't reflect the rain from being absorbed into her clothing. She was drenching wet and was getting wetter since the rain didn't soften at all. Her clothes just got heavier as she walked through the storm. She was probably going to end up sick after this... very sick.

She finally reached her destination. She would've driven, but the place was only a few blocks away and plus, it would expose her plan would've probably be noticeable if she had driven, especially if the Black Circle was watching her from somewhere. She wasn't aware of what to expect when she got there.

"Hello?" Amy hollered out. She looked everywhere around her. No one was there. Cautiously, she bent over and lifted her pant leg and drew a knife from under it. She tugged her jacket's sleeve over it to hide the blade. She didn't know if she was going to be needing it or not, and she had to be prepared for anything. "Alright, I know one of you at least is here. Evan? Lacey? Beatrice? Someone I don't know? There is no point in hiding, so let's get to the point before the weather gets even worse than it already is."

"Amy, turn around," Evan's voice said from behind her. She turned around to see a face dripping with water. Amy twisted the hidden blade in her sleeve, getting it into the position to use it anytime she had to, but she wished and hoped she didn't need to. "You came alone, didn't you?"

Amy nodded her head. "Do you possibly think I was that stupid? Of course I came alone. Now I lived up to my end, now where's Dan that you had promised me?"

"I'm here to take you to him," He said. "But Amy, I'm sorry I had to do this."

"Do what? Kidnap me, try to do it again, steal my watch, and kidnap my brother?"

Evan shook his head. "No. Not that. Listen, it's just best if you don't see it coming so that's why I can't exactly tell you."

Amy was completely confused of what Evan was trying to tell her. She had no idea what exactly was going on. She turned around the other direction quickly, and her face had been placed into someone's chest. Her eyes looked up to see Ian Kabra, in his hand held a needle with some neon green liquid inside. He was positioned to stab her in the throat with it. Amy's hand grabbed Ian's wrist, and she let the the knife slide out her sleeve into the palm of her other hand.

"Neither of you take another step." Amy's voice didn't stutter or crack, which she was surprised. She was absolutely scared of what was going to happen next because she didn't know, and that's what made her not afraid to use the weapon. Her mouth was going dry as she gulped in fear. _They_ were suppose to be here by now. She had already spoken her signal.

"It's two against one Ames," Evan said, but Amy was ignoring him as her thoughts ran through her mind: _Where were they? _and, _What on Earth was taking them so long? _"What makes you think you can take us?"

Amy had to stall time, she turned to Ian. "Why have you betrayed us? You are a Cahill as well, why did you turn against us? I mean, Aunt Beatrice is explainable, but you?"

"Oh Amy, only if you knew the purpose of this organization, you could have figured it out yourself," Ian said. "Let's just say, I did this for Natalie... and for you and your brother. My mother has done such horrible things to you. This is my revenge."

"How long have the two of you been on the team?"

"I've been here since the day I saw you and Dan roll across the top of that car and scare off the motorcycle dude," Evan said. "Lacey Lake approached me after you left. She convinced me to join. So I've been here for two years and Ian joined about a month after I did."

"I still can't believe you'd two turn to this. Killing, stealing, it isn't right!"

"Let's not be a hypocrite Amy. You stole plenty of items for the Vespers. You had watched Irina die, and-" Ian stopped as he heard a noise. "What was that?"

"Evan," Amy said. "You were wrong, it's not two against one. More like three against two..." Amy's voice trailed off as Hamilton and Jake appeared behind Evan. Amy twist Ian's arm around to his back and pinned him to the wet concrete. Amy dropped the knife. Amy yanked the needle that Ian was going to puncture her with and stabbed it into his own throat. As Ian's eyelids shut, Amy leapt off his back and walked over towards Hamilton and Jake, who were pinning Evan to the brick wall.

"Evan, what did I just give Ian? It won't kill him, will it?" Amy asked, and Evan shook his head.

"No, he will just sleep for an hour or so. It will wear off soon."

"What now?" Hamilton asked. Amy shrugged. She was hoping that they could have thought of a plan as the followed Amy here. Amy turned to Jake.

"Let's take him to the car. Maybe he could lead us directions to their HQ."

"NO WAY!" Evan protested as he was dragged out of the alley to the SUV that Jake had stolen not too long ago. Hamilton and Jake shoved him into middle row of the car, and didn't let him move. Jonah sat in the driver's seat as Atticus took the passenger. Amy climbed into the back row.

"Where to?" Jonah asked, checking the rear-view mirror. Evan didn't answer. Hamilton squeezed Evan's bicep harder. Evan winced in pain.

"You're lucky he isn't a Lucian, Evan!" Amy said. "If so, he'd probably be squeezing you with poison nails. Speak up or his grip gets harder!"

Evan still didn't say anything. The car was silent. All you could hear was the sounds of the rain pounding against the windows and the engine running. Hamilton tightened his grip and allowed his nails to dig into Evan's flesh. Evan couldn't feel the blood circulating in his right arm anymore. "Okay, okay, a surrender! 3500 Cleveland Avenue. That's where the headquarters is."

Jonah pulled out of the parking lot and drove down the road. The town was completely empty, there was hardly any cars on the street. Jake pulled his cell phone from his pocket and handed it to Atticus. "Call Dan, you can reach him through Dad's cell phone number. Tell him that if this jerk is telling the truth, we should be there within ten minutes."

"So you know about your father?" Evan asked Jake. Jake didn't answer the question. He didn't even want to think about his father being a member of the Black Circle. No wonder he wanted him and Atticus away from Amy and Dan. But Mark Rosenbloom was no longer his father. Jake was sure Atticus would agree that he was going to go down with all the other members of the Black Circle.

o0o

Arthur Trent stood directly behind Hope. Sneaking into a building wasn't that easy when there were thousands of alarms and traps all over the place. They found a way in, but the problem was that they had to not get seen or caught, which they could've avoided better if they had a map to the building, but with no map, the two had to be quick and quiet.

"I guess this is the meeting room," Hope said inspecting the room for anything that could trigger an alarm. Bookshelves were surrounding the room as it's walls. Not one space on any of the shelves were empty. There was a table with five chairs, two on each side and one on the end and a white board was placed not far away from it, with writing on it. Arthur moved close to it and looked at the dry erase board.

"It's their plan," Arthur said reading it. "They have a play by play of it written down."

Hope walked up next to Arthur. "Now we know what they exactly intend to do... Arthur, this is bad, very, very bad!" Arthur pulled his phone from his pocket and began to type a text message to send to Amy. He locked it after he put it into his pocket. He grabbed Hope's wrist.

"Let's hurry up, the faster we hurry, the sooner we can get out of here."

o0o

_The Circle is going to try to lure you to some alley. Whatever you do, don't go. They are just going to kidnap you again and... well you don't want to know what will happen next. Stay at the house. -AJT_

Amy didn't bother to reply. She knew exactly what the Circle was planning to do. That's why after she realized what was going on, she had back up. She threw her phone to the side was Jonah parallel parked in front of the given address.

"This is the right place, isn't it?" Jonah asked turning around to look at Evan. A few moments went by in silence. Hamilton began to squeeze his arm again.

"He asked you a question," Hamilton said. "Answer it, or we will find a much horrible way to make you suffer."

"Yes."

"I hope you're not lying either Evan," Amy said. "Now how do we get in?"

Hamilton gave Evan a death glare after Amy's question. Evan shivered before he answered. "You can't. You have to have a key you enter without one, a silent alarm will go off. You'll get in a lot of trouble... trouble as in you will probably be killed. There is no other way in. Windows would trigger the alarm, same thing with other doors outside the HQ, no air vents."

"Evan, sure hope you have your key card on you!" Atticus said.

Jake pushed the car door opened and stepped out, if his hand still attached to Evan's arm and Hamilton jumped out after him with his hand attached to Evan's right arm.

"You can allow guests inside, correct?" Amy asked as they approached the entrance. Evan nodded his head and pulled his key card from his pocket.

"But my card only allows access to three guest. At least two of you will have to stay out here. Better make the choice now."

Everyone stared at each other exchanging looks. It was clear that everyone wanted to go inside to rescue Dan from the Circle, but not all of them could. They had to make the decision of who went where and did what.

"Atticus and I will stay out here," Jonah said and Atticus turned and looked at him strangely, but Jonah ignored it. "You three go in with Evan, and be careful." Evan opened the door and lead them in. They key pad where he slid the card through blinked red in big bold letters saying "CODE BLACK, CODE BLACK." All the color in Evan's face drained.

"What's Code Black?" Hamilton asked.

"Very bad, someone or some people are in the building without permission."

"It's not us, right?" Amy asked, a bit panicked that Evan might had betrayed them again, but he shook his head.

"No, someone else is here, and I don't think Mark knows, he's the only one left in the building, Ian's... well you know why he's gone, but the other two are in the middle of doing... something else."

"And that would be..." Jake's voice held for a second, indicating that Evan should fill in the blanks, but all Evan did was flash a big almost complete evil grin and smirked. Evan shook his head.

"You'll find out soon enough."

o0o

Dan sat on the bed that he had found himself on when he woke up. It wasn't really a bed, it was just a blanket and a pillow, lying on the floor. The room he was in made it clear that it was a lab, and lots of test were being ran, though he didn't want to trip over his shoelace and cause an explosion. But something caught Dan's eye as he examined the room. Something shiny, and it was attracting Dan's attention. It felt like it was pulling him towards itself while it was shouting his name.

Dan scrambled to his feet and began to make his way towards the sparkling object. But before he got there, his feet came to a halt as he heard a loud thud. Dan turned to Mark Rosenbloom's body on the floor. He was still out cold, but Dan knew he would wake up any minute. He couldn't have made the thud, he hadn't even moved for the last hour and a half. But what had made the sound?

Dan's heart skipped a beat. He found the source of the noise and was as scared as a bunny being hunted by it's preditor. The locked door to the room's door knob made a clicking sound. Someone had unlocked it, and moments later the door knob had twisted and the door popped open. Every cell in Dan's body was praying that it was Amy coming to rescue him.

It wasn't Amy.

Dan let out a breath of relief and continued his work as he saw a man slip into the room. He was curious to find out what that shiny object is. He had to know what it was. The suspense was killing him. If he waited any longer to see what was so shiny, then he probably would've died.

"Dan, stop fooling around and let's get out of here!" Arthur Trent's voice hollered out to him. Dan grabbed the object quickly and rushed towards him. "I don't think we are the only ones here now. I think another Black Circle member has entered and knows of your mother and I's presence."

"Mom's here too?" Dan asked curiously.

"Yes, she is just up these stairs, she's the look out."

o0o

Hope's eyes scanned the area, waiting for Arthur to return. They had to get out of there fast, before the Black Circle's plan had gone through completely. It was only a matter of time, a short time. She listened as the thumping sound of someone walking up the steps she was guarding. She spun around on her heel to see Arthur and Dan come up the stairs.

"We've gotta ditch this place," She said. "Someone is here and I think they are coming our direction."

Dan's name was echoed through the halls of the Black Circle Headquarters. It gotten louder as whoever was shouting it got closer. Arthur looked Hope in the eyes. "Get him out of here. Run, don't stop until up are out of the building and take cover."

"But-" Dan began to speak to the parents he hasn't seen since he was three, the ones he had barely any memory of.

"You heard your father, c'mon!" Hope grabbed Dan's wrist and jumped into a sprint, with Dan running behind her in her tow.

"What's going on, Mom?"

"You... you were bait. The Circle, they were playing the game smarter than any of us thought. We underestimated them and now they are winning. As long as you are safe, the game still plays. They used you to trick Amy and the others into the building. There is a bomb set inside. It's triggered and is going to go off, but we don't know how much time we have until it blows. Your father is going to try to find out who else is in the building."

"Amy and the others are in the building."

Hope stopped running. She let go of Dan's wrist and turned around and looked him in the eyes. Terror struck her face in an instant. She knew the plan. She knew how to get out alive, but Dan's words changed everything. The Black Circle was targeting Cahills. They were just going to pick them off one by one until there was none left and then go after the Vespers. Amy and the others being in the building meant more possible deaths. Arthur had to be warned.

Hope rested her palms on Dan's shoulders and inhaled a deep breath. Calmness was key to winning things, it was the key to activating your mind to think. "Dan, you listen to me. You are going to follow this hallway. You will approach a door. Go through, and get as far away from the building as possible. I trust you will do what I wish, and not be stupid. This isn't a game. It's war. Now run!"

Dan had ran down the hall, like his mother had commanded. More people than they had thought had to be evacuated. Time was running out, but she didn't know how much was left. It was only a matter of time until death struck.

o0o

Dan's hands met the handle of the door his mother had told him about. His body poured out of the building. He ran a lot. The way his mother described it, the door was just a few feet down, but it wasn't a few feet down at all, more like a mile, but Dan knew it was less that that.

His heart pumped rapidly. It beat against his ribs like it was going to pop out of his chest. Dan took deep, short breaths, trying to catch up to it. The wet rain showering him, made it harder to catch his breath with the water entering his stood outside the building, bent over with his hands on his knees. He was about to take off on another sprint but before he could run away, he heard his name being called by two familiar voices. It was like what was happening inside the Headquarters all over again, but this time, it was Amy's voice he heard yelling. He heard the voices of his best friend Atticus and his cousin Jonah. He looked around to see them jumping out of the car.

"Thank God you're alive!" Atticus said. "Where are the others? Amy? Jake? Hamilton? One of them has to be with you, right?"

Dan shook his head. "There's no time to explain Att. We have to make a run for it!"

"Come on then, let's jump in the SUV!" Jonah said, but Dan shook his head. We need to get away from the cars. This building is going to explode, being inside the car is just going to make it more dangerous for us. We have to run!"

The three took off running. Dan prayed as he ran. He wasn't much of a believer, he actually didn't believe at all, but a miracle was needed. He didn't have his asthma inhaler with him, if he were to have an attack, he wasn't prepared, plus if the HQ was going to blow, the smoke would make it worse. Second, he didn't know how much time his sister, his cousin, and his best friend's brother had left to get out of the building before the fire.

_BABOOOMMMM!_

The building exploded and erupted into flames. Pieces of it were flying all over the place. The three boys jumped to the ground and covered their heads with their hands. The explosion was an ear-splitting sound. It almost felt like the earth had vibrated from the sound waves. The three boys feared to look back. No one could've survived an explosion like that. They all exchanged looks of horror. All of them lost someone, a best friend, a sister, and a brother.

Sirens had screamed and lights of red and blue flashed. Police, fire trucks, and ambulances came running to the flames. The rain was starting to lighten up, and the fire was hard to put out. Dan's eyes started to well with tears. He wasn't much of a crier, but the parents, who he hasn't seen since he was three, his sister, cousin, and his best friend's brother were inside that building. Cops were saying that the firemen didn't find any bodies inside, dead or alive.

Once the storm had finally came to a halt, the firemen began to gain control of the fire. The flames were beginning to die. That's when Dan heard it. His voice being shouted again, the third time today. He looked around. He couldn't find it's source. Finally, he saw wet red hair.

"Dan, thank God you're alive!" Amy said pulling her brother into a hug, her skin had black and gray spots from ashes.

"Amy, how'd you make it out? Where are the others?" Jonah asked, and Atticus looked up with worry. Amy gulped. She pulled out of the hug, looked at the three boys, who had no clue what was going on.

"I was set free. I was told that I was the messenger. _She _took them away. I was told to warn you guys."

"Lacey _killed _them?" Atticus asked shaking his head. _This _couldn't be happening, could it?

"No, she took them, but it wasn't Lacey," Amy's eyes looked at the pavement. She couldn't look them in the eyes. "Lacey Lake isn't the leader of the Black Circle. It's my mother. Hope Cahill."

_**To Be Continued...**_

* * *

**Five thousand words. Does that make up for the wait? There is going to be a sequel. It will probably be out in the spring, I have no set date. If any of you want to know when it will be published, just let me know and I will tell you about it later when I have more information about it. **

**So a twist huh? Hope was acting this whole time. Arthur didn't even know. Now three people have been kidnapped! Spoiler on the sequel: It's plot involves getting the three back. And there might be a little bit of Amian in it, and I said MIGHT. If you haven't noticed, the romance in this story is small and that is because of getting all the important stuff in. That's why there was only bits of Jamy. Evamy was only the parts where Amy was getting over Evan being in the Circle, which was only a few moments and it wasn't big of a deal. So next story there might be some Amian. No promises though!**

**Thanks everyone for supporting me to the end. I appreciate it so much! Thanks for my reviewers, Agent Get Amy and Ian Together, the guest reviewer, and aqua! Also thanks to my beta reader! Thanks so much! I appreciate it so much! Stay tuned for the sequel! **

**What did Dan find in the lab? What happened with the three kidnap victims? Why did Hope let Dan and Amy escape? Find out in the sequel!**

**-Michelle Loves Chocolate 99 **


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